Monster Hunter is one part role playing game, one part action game, one part MMORPG and two parts adventure game, cooked by a pack of anthropomorphic cats and lifted from the flames the second it turns a delicious bronze hue, all to the sound of a surprisingly cheerful jingle. So tasty!

Developed and published by Capcom, the original game wasn't as big a success in the United States as it was in Japan. However, its portable sequels are among the most popular games available for the PSP, and subsequent sequels have been released on the Wii, PSP, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS.

Monster Hunter is a unique experience. Playing as a hunter assembled from a list of faces, voices, etc., you try to make a name for yourself battling an array of increasingly bigger and nastier creatures that can kick your ass shockingly fast if you're unprepared and/or rush them head-on as if they're Mooks. Each Monster not only has a variety of attacks, but a number of both subtle and overt visual and audio cues to each action, as well as its own status. Recognition of these cues is crucial to properly defeating them. A typical Monster Hunter battle has a graceful Zen-like quality to it, like a bullfight with a 700-pound gorilla (or wyvern, or dragon, or Giant Enemy Crab) should.

The weapons and armor store is pretty weak, and everything they sell will be out of date only a few hours from starting the game. To get better equipment, the player has to assemble his or her own equipment from parts of fallen monsters as well as activities like combining, mining, fishing and bug collecting.

Players can hunt by themselves, and when doing so in more modern games they can bring along up to two CPU-controlled support characters who perform actions like attacking monsters and performing healing and buffing abilities. In console games, players can go online to hunt together in parties, while portable games have historically eschewed online support in favor of local wireless multiplayer, the idea being that you actually meet with your hunting buddies in person to do quests with them. This changed with Monster Hunter 4, the first portable game to feature online multiplayer and the first game in the entire series to offer both flavors.

Also spawned a manga adaption, called Monster Hunter Orage, written by Mashima Hiro of Fairy Tail and Rave Master fame. A second Manga adaptation called Monster Hunter: Senkou no Kariudo trans Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter is currently being published, written by Keiichi Hikami and illustrated by Shin Yamamoto.

How popular is it? Portable 3rd for the PSP, sold over four million copies in Japan alone in a mere two months, which is more than enough to tell. Also, 4 sold two million copies in mere FOUR DAYS. Cha-ching!

The number of games released are classified under "generations". Here's the list of the main series and spin-offs:

First Generation:

Monster Hunter: Playstation 2 (2004-2005) - The original. One of the number of games to utilize the PS2 Online functions. The servers outside Japan were closed at the end of 2007, with the Japanese servers closing on July 1, 2011. Funnily enough, the release outside of Japan was a minor Updated Re-release: the Dual Blades weapon class wasn't present in the original Japanese version.

Monster Hunter G: Playstation 2 (2004), Wii (2009), Japan only - An Updated Re-release of MH1 with some new monster variants. The PS2 version servers were closed down in 2011, while the Wii version's servers presumably went down the same time as the Nintendo WiFi Connection shutdown.

Monster Hunter 2: Playstation 2 (2006), Japan only - A sequel to MH1, with all new monsters and new subspecies of old ones. The servers were closed down in 2011.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2: Playstation Portable (2007) - A sequel to MHF1, known as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd in Japan, it is separate from MH2. Uses the same monsters but has different quests and setting.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite: Playstation Portable (2008-2009) and iOS (2014) - An Updated Re-release of MHF2, in Japan known as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, featured a few new monsters and subspecies. Holds the previous record for most monsters in the game at 81. An Updated Re-release was eventually released worldwide on the iOS app store, which includes updated graphics and a reworked control scheme, and the addition of later functions such as the Target Cam from 3 Ultimate and online multiplayer.

Third Generation:

Monster Hunter Tri: Nintendo Wii (2009-2010) - The third main game. Introduced a bit more three-dimensional movement via underwater areas and battles, a new weapon type (the Switch Axe) and a new weight classification of bowgun (Medium Bowgun). Bowguns were changed to be much more customizable, their overall weight tied to what parts were used to make them. Many new monsters were added, as were two all new monster types, but only three old ones make reappearances. The servers were closed on May 1, 2013 after the release of 3 Ultimate.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: Playstation Portable (2010) and Playstation 3 (2011), Japan only - A sequel to MHF2. Has several new monsters (and another new type) and subspecies (and more returning monsters from the previous generation), but omits the underwater parts. Not a port of MH3, same deal as MHF2.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2011 and 2013) - An Updated Re-release of MH3, known in Japan as Monster Hunter 3G, with several new monsters and touch screen features. This release keeps the Switch Axe and underwater combat added in the original Tri, but removes both the Medium weight class of Bowgun and the vast customization. Released on the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U with the ability to transfer save files between the two systems and online capabilities for the Wii U version. The 3DS version was originally limited to local multiplayer, but a free app on the Wii U e-Shop lets the 3DS version use the servers for the Wii U version.

Fourth Generation:

Monster Hunter 4: Nintendo 3DS (2013), Japan only - The fourth main game. Introduces two new weapon types (Charge Blade and Insect Glaive), and the addition of more three-dimensional movement and combat, although the underwater combat from Tri/3 Ultimate is removed again. The game has more of an emphasis on adventuring and story progression, featuring an actual story and the ability to travel between four different villages. Item management has been changed some: blademasters and gunners share the same item pouch (24 regular slots and 8 "gunner" slots for bowgun ammo and/or arrow coatings), the Field Pouch system from Portable 3rd returns, and custom "My Sets" are changed to include items as well as armor. The game has online play implemented without the need for additional hardware or software. Also implemented is a quest maker, from which the player can upload Guild Quests for other players to complete. Taking the place of Tri's Free Hunts are Expeditions, which occur in the Everwood, a unique area that is completely randomized every time it is entered.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Nintendo 3DS (2014-2015) - An Updated Re-release of MH4 released on February 13th, 2015 internationally. Underwater combat still doesn't return, but MH4's emphasis on jumping and three-dimensional movement is retained, with the new ability to use the knockback from heavier weapons such as the Hammer and Greatsword as a legitimate means to help launch allies onto monsters. G-Rank was revamped for this game, divided into multiple sub-ranks. This game holds the new record for most monsters in it at 96. It was released the same day as the New 3DS model, and has a bundle with it accordingly.

Monster Hunter Online: PC - A second MH MMO in development by Tencent and officially backed by Capcom, using Crytek's CryEngine 3. Currently in beta in China. Crytek initially announced an international release, but the announcement was pulled. Due to developer Tencent being a Chinese company, it is possible that it may be Chinese only, or at least released in China first. The earliest known version of the game was a leak in 2012 for a version on the PS Vita, but that version was cancelled and what work was done was transferred to the PC version.

Monster Hunter Stories: Nintendo 3DS (2016) - A story-oriented Role-Playing Game entry in the franchise that focuses on "Riders" who befriend and ride monsters as opposed to Hunters of the mainline Monster Hunter world, and the relationship between the Riders and said monsters. Features a vastly different art style based around Cel Shading.

Monster Hunter Cross: Nintendo 3DS (2015) - Stylized as Monster Hunter X, this spinoff features locales from across the franchise coming together in a crossover-esque style. Features both old and new monsters, as well as four new flagship monsters collectively known as the "Elite Four". Introduces "Hunting Arts X Hunting Style", which places a heavier emphasis on action and style compared to the mainline series. Hunting Arts are special moves players can equip and perform in the heat of combat, which range from flashy and powerful special attacks to support buffs and healing. There are also four different Hunting Styles, and the player can switch between them to fine-tune their own style of play, whether it's classic Monster Hunter, boasting even more Hunting Arts, taking to the skies in aerial combat, or turning the tides in a crisis. Unlike Stories, Cross will run on the same engine as MH4U and will be aesthetically similar, as well as sharing the same choices of weapons.

This series provides examples of:

In-universe, the player character is considered this after completing all of the Village and Guild Hall quests in each respective game. The NPC dialogue even changes to reflect on your achievements, with people praising your feats left and right.

Your Main Palico in 4/4U, who is the Ace Palico. Many other Palicoes look up to him as a sort of idol, especially the ones occupying Cheeko Sands. You, on the other hand, are just his minion.

The Ace Hunters in 4U, a group of high-level hunters regularly assigned to dangerous tasks by the Guild. In an inversion, they get hit hard by The Worf Effect and have to be bailed out at least once or twice by players.

Acquired Poison Immunity: The more you apply the poison status to a monster, the more resistant it will become to poison. The same holds true for other status effects.

Admiring the Abomination: Given that this series is rife with Fantastic Science, this tends to pop up every now and then in both dialogue, quest errata and the Monster Journals you can purchase from the store. In 4 Ultimate, the Guildmarm is this for the Brachydios of all creatures, big time.

Guildmarm:Those strong arms! That explosive personality! And he's right there in the Volcanic Hollow...Oh, I could faint! Be a dear, Doodle, and give him a wink for me, okay?

Adventure-Friendly World: The world of Monster Hunter seems to be very Schizo Tech one, with medieval weapons created and infused with modern technology. The number one job is hunting the monsters that roam the world for the materials you can harvest from them and their habitats, and there are PLENTY of them. With the absence of airplanes and other powerful modern weapons though, the primary way of hunting them is of course getting up close and personal.

Aesop: No matter how vicious, scary, or outright massive the obstacle, with preparation and teamwork, you can make it fall!

All Love Is Unrequited: In 4U, the Ace Cadet develops a crush on Guildmarm, but she won't even give him the time of day, so you need to kill a Gore Magala before he does something stupid. At the same time, Guildmarm has a crush on a Brachydios, and they aren't exactly the human-loving type. And then before the follow-up quest to hunt a Rajang, when Guildmarm is asked if she's falling for the Ace Cadet, she responds that she's starting to fall for Rajang.

All Myths Are True: At this point, the Guild really should stop being surprised with monsters that they thought were Myth appearing. The Fatalis trio, Garuba Daora, Dalamadur...

In earlier titles, some bits of information and trivia about monsters can only be found by reading the in-game Monster Encyclopedia, the contents of which players can even expand by purchasing Monster Info books from the store. Quite a few important hints on how to deal with certain monsters can be easily missed by glossing over said info books.

Many of the new non-Virus or non-Bleeding-related Skills in 4U are essentially combinations of various other Skills into one, rare Skill. This includes Skills such as Enlightened Blade (Awaken, Element Atk Up, and Status Atk Up), Clandestine (Load Up, Combination +20%, and Sneak), and Pro Dirty Fencer (Fortify, Marathon Runner, and Stamina Thief).

Several high-level monsters are designed to be this. The most notable examples are Alatreon and Dhisifuroa (both have access to multiple Element types unlike most Elder Dragons), Hyujikiki (can inflict all Status effects at once) and Black Flying Wyvern (can use other monsters' signature attacks).

The combination elements in Frontier play with this trope. These include Light (Fire and Thunder), Sou (Water and Ice) and Frozen Seraphim (Fire, Ice and Dragon).

Apex Monsters gain the attacks and abilities of their subspecies and close relatives. For example, Apex Diablos can use an aimed charge like the White Monoblos and jump out of the ground like the Black Diablos.

Amplifier Artifact: Talismans, first introduced in Tri, are this. Wearing them can augment existing armor skills, or in rare cases, even provide an entire skill on their own.

An Interior Designer Is You: Monsters are used for equipment and decoration of buildings and headquarters. In 3U, players could even decorate their own homes with items acquired via trading with the Argosy Captain.

Anachronism Stew: Early on this was very prevalent; in the first game the world of Monster Hunter was implied to still be based heavily around tribal societies that operated on hunting and gathering, despite the existence of advanced metallurgy and chemistry. Subverted by later games when it was revealed that agriculture does exist and hunters exist primarily to protect humanity from the giant monsters and dragons that live in the wilderness, with gathering food being a lesser priority.

Every Fatalis type weapon or armor piece that doesn't praise the dragons as gods will have flavor text ranging from "rivers of blood" to "eternal darkness" or "glittering divine light". To make matters worse, the flavor texts briefly hint—in a sinister fashion, no less—that all pieces of Fatalis equipment could eventually drive their wielders insane or outright kill them if used too much.note Thankfully they don't affect players in any way whatsoever during the game itself. What's more, Unite strongly hints that said equipment somehow retains their source creature's regenerative powers...

Tenebra - "A dark blade that pulses with the lifeforce it saps from any who wield it..."

The Gigginox hunting horn. "A coffin-like weapon sealed with Gigginox hides. At night, the wails of the dead emanate from the inside." It sounds like a description befitting a black metal hunting horn.

All of the Gogmazios weapons not only have despair and the netherworld as their theme, but a number of them also look like epitaphs, coffins or torture devices.

Naturally, defeating the flagship monster of the game results in this. Special mention, however, goes to Portable 3rd, which features a festival for which Yukumo invites people from across the realm (explaining several cameos from previous games).

Defeating the final boss of the single-player quests, typically an Elder Dragon, will also result in this.

The Sword and Shield and Dual Blade classes will occasionally switch out said swords for hatchets.

The Great Sword class has a few 2-handed axe designs, most notably the Cera Cymmetrynote AKA "Diablos King Blade" (Japan) / "King Attilart Sword" (Western), one of the strongest Greatswords in the series across many titles.

And Your Reward Is Clothes: Played with — straight in that you usually make either armor or weapons with materials gleaned from dead or captured monsters, while averted in that the "clothes" are far from useless, with many being awesome and completely practical. Since you are making clothes out of monster parts, you can pick and choose what you make, so getting a full set is actually a lot easier than just getting anything that looks good (that and the prospect of Set Bonuses).

Antidote Effect: Who actually bothers with the Lightning Rod? Same with the Tranq Shot (which, like every Shot, will default to the Ammunition/Coating storage, which ends up saving space for valuable equipments, carves and gathers). This trope is averted with status-healing items, including Antidotes themselves. The real-time battle system means that using such items to keep your health/stamina/mobility up are a prerequisite for not dying.

The Farm mechanic used in Freedom 2, Tri, and 4/4U is one of the most notable, allowing you to multiply the amount of natural items in your stock that don't belong to monsters or are acquired from rocks. Item Farming is definitely still there, but at least they make it so you can focus on gathering monster materials rather than having to spend hours gathering herbs, honey, and the like.

Ever wanted to cook Raw Meat en masse? 4/4U has you covered with the Fancy Spit, a kitchen upgrade that lets you cook up to ten chunks of Meat at once. If you get the optional Cook's Spit upgrade, you can cook up to 15 chunks of Meat in one go.

High Rank missions usually deliver supplies late, which can be extremely punishing if one or more players forgot their Hot or Cold Drinks in areas with extreme conditions. In 4/4U they will always have Cold or Hot drinks always ready at the beginning, hunters simply have to head back to base to get them.

One of the more tedious non-quest aspects of the earlier generation games involved checking and maintaining the Farm after each quest to produce new supplies. In the third and fourth gen games, they remedy this by allowing hunters to place an extended item order with the farm liaisons, to be received at a later time (e.g. after 3-5 quests) for bigger item gains. The Wycoon in 4U even lampshades this:

Wycoon:"After all, who wants to request multiplying items after every single hunt anyway? Heh!"

Normally, being in open desert areas during the day will sap at your health unless you use Cool Drinks or Chilled Meat, or have enough points in Heat Res for Heat Cancel. Both Jhen Mohran and Dah'ren Mohran are fought in a massive expanse of desert, but unlike regular desert maps, the Great Desert doesn't have the health-draining heat property.

Before Tri, the only way to finish a quest was by completing the objectives, abandoning the mission, or failing it, the latter of which penalizes you in cash. When the third generation rolled around, the Subquest system from Dos made a return, which lets players complete optional sidequests for extra profit...but this time, it also gave the players another way to complete quests without risking the loss of zenny and gathered items from failing it, by choosing to "End via Subquest" from the in-game menu.

Village Quests used to only go as far as upper Low Rank in terms of difficulty, or in the case of the Updated Rereleases, High Rank note with a few notable exceptions, such as Unite's "Monster Hunter" and 3U's "Mark of a Hero" and "The Glittering Darkness", all of which are G-Rank; G-Rank level monsters could only be fought via the Gathering Hall, which means said monsters are scaled up for multiplayer hunts. In 4U, once you hit the highest level Caravan Quests (10* difficulty), you can unlock G-Rank monsters whose health pools are scaled for single player, mitigating some of the incredible difficulty G-Rank is notorious for and allowing players easier access to loot.

The most well known anti-frustration feature happens to be the consolidation of Online-only quests into Offline single player, which came about with the first wave of Portable games on the PSP. Prior to this, certain monsters and powerful endgame equipment can only be accessed by going online, greatly limiting the amount of content for many players. Once the Freedom/Portable series was introduced, getting one's hands on the advanced content was no longer a matter of being forced to connect to a server...except in the case of Tri, which inexplicably went back to the PS2 "Online-only" model for High Rank.

In the early generations, Khezu technically cannot spot you, which disables the "panic run" (which depletes your Stamina faster than the standard run) but also prevents you from doing a panic dive. In 4 and 4 Ultimate, it can now grant "spotted" status, allowing you to dive as well as to shift the camera in its direction if it's in the area but you can't find it.

Anti-Grinding: In 4 and 4 Ultimate, if you're not G-Rank yet, the Guild Quests' levels are this. At Level 31, a Guild Quest will upgrade from Low Rank to High Rank and its HR requirement will be bumped up by three. At Level 100, the quest will upgrade again, from High Rank to G Rank, and the HR requirement will increase yet again. This puts a cap on how much you can farm the same quest until you increase your HR accordingly; alternately, you'll just have to get a fresh new quest to use, either randomly from Expeditions or from other players. There's also the matter of monsters getting tougher as you level up their respective quests; a Level 1 Velocidrome is merely a Fragile SpeedsterWarm-Up Boss, while a Level 100 one is a Lightning Bruiser.

Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only two Large Monsters can be on the map at any one time. This becomes advantageous in multi-monster hunts and when fighting Qurupeco, because the last thing you need is three or more Deviljhos breathing down your neck.

Arc Number: "4" for X. There's four Hunting Styles, four villages, four flagship monsters, and the "X" in the logo even divides the square behind it into four parts. According to Word of God, most of this was completely coincidental; they just happened to want four flagship monsters and four Hunting Styles and such.

They will often follow you if they're not targeting a monster or gathering items, which means if you're presently fighting a large monster they'll most likely get whacked around to the point of retreating and depriving you of support. They will do this even if their headwear makes them deprioritize or outright avoid attacking large monsters. If your allies are offense-oriented (such as Shakalakas with the False Felyne Mask and Palicoes with the Fighting Forte), being near the monster is the whole point, yes, but it's particularly bothersome if your allies are geared more towards non-combat support (such as Shakalakas with the Nulberry Mask and Palicoes with the Healing Forte).

They're oblivious to any hazards a monster may have left on the ground, like Brachydios's slime, meaning more often than not, they'll just walk into it.

They will refuse to heal themselves just because they're low on health or put out status ailments and blights that their abilties can prevent. If they do use them, it's because you commanded them to (for example, the Shakalakas' Nulberry mask is triggered by a Signal) or because you are in need of healing yourself; healing themseslves is simply a side effect.

While the Palicos are smart enough not to attack a monster you're mounting, they still stand right next to the monster while it's trying to shake you off, getting hurt in the process

Area of Effect: Some items heal or buff up all players within the area, such as Lifepowders and support Horns. In addition, the Wide-range skill will transfer the effects of some self-healing items to all other players in the area. For example, rather than just carrying one Antidote Horn that takes time to apply its effects and has a chance of breaking with each use, you can also carry 10 Antidotes that will work all the same with less activation time.

The game's much-loathed Desire Sensor was named as such by players who desperately needed just that one rare part from a monster—any monster—yet failed to get it even after dozens upon dozens of hunts. Cue Capcom officially releasing T-Shirts◊ with the words "Desire Sensor Begone!" emblazoned in front.

Attack Its Weak Point: For the higher rank monsters, this is the only way to inflict decent damage to them. Traditionally, weak spots are found by either the "softness" when a weapon hits (fountains of blood with some hit lag as the blade is simulated to be piercing deeper flesh) or by the ease you can flinch the monster by hitting said spot.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The purpose of the game is to fight these things. Examples including Lao Shan Lung, Shen Gaoren, and all the other really huge stuff.

Taken to new heights in Monster Hunter Tri. While exploring the woods outside your town you may encounter super-sized versions of normal creatures with increased HP but much better drops. While not as big as some of the elder dragons they can still be quite massive, with the super-sized aptonoths appearing to be around 30 feet tall.

Coincidentally, the trope is inverted in the form of several monsters (usually unique to specific quests or events). Namely, the Phantom Uragaan, in which it's almost one-tenth of the the size of a normal Uragaan but retains all of its power (normal Uragaan are around 2500cm, the Phantom is around 400 cm). The equally tiny At Bird's Hill Yian Kut-ku (making the Kut-ku and chicken parallels all the more appropriate). Lastly, the high-pitched, tiny Khezus, which shoot dangerous normal-scale lightning.

Frontier manages to beat them all with the Raviente. He's so big that up to 32 players can hunt him at once in 8 groups of 4 hunters each (it's a server-wide battle) AND has an entire quest just to get carves off of him. Just look here if you want to see for yourself. And even then, it can't be completely carved, although that one is an inventory limitation.

The offline Monster Hunter games finally get a creature to rival it with 4's Dalamadur, the first creature in the Colossal size category to not be a type of Raviente.

While battling monsters, sometimes they'll drop a flashing object on the ground. These are often referred to as "shinies" by players and will either be a Tear or Sob item, which are both worth a decent chunk of change, or a random and potentially very rare drop from that monster. Of course, true to this trope, some players actually try to get the "shiny" as soon as possible even when the monster is still totally there.

Some monsters like Tigrex and especially Deviljho would just go for a piece of meat that is just laying there on the ground, ignoring the bloodthirsty hunters who are right there attacking it. Of course, never mind that the hunters themselves probably drugged the meat and placed it as a trap...

Most of the Dual Blades that feature two elements. They look awesome at first, but in the 2nd Generation games, the combinations of elements are unwieldy, i.e. monster is weak against one but immune to the other. The notable exception is the Fatalis/White Fatalis duals, which are dragon/thunder endowed, given most end game monsters weak to thunder are also weak to dragonnote In Epic Hunting Quests, however, monsters with vastly different resistances are sometimes presented. This is where some awkward combinations shine, especially when appropriate raw damage weapons are not available.

Prior to the Third Gen games, Gunlance shelling was largely seen as this due to dealing a minuscule amount of fixed (albeit unblockable) damage that doesn't scale with anything apart from the weapon's innate shelling level and the "Artillery" armor skill, and was only viewed as a quick way to extend your regular melee combos with, since Shelling also consumes weapon Sharpness quickly. Thankfully, the new mechanics introduced in Tri onwards have addressed this issue to an extent.

Some monster attacks. An example that springs to mind is Agnaktor'sMagma Beam. It's an incredibly powerful attack that can inflict severe burns and has a great aesthetic coming off of one of the most metal monsters going, but unless it actually bothers to spin around, anyone with half an idea of what they're doing (which by the point where Agnaktor is encountered, you should) will find it so easy to avoid that it's essentially a few free hits.

Bandit Mook: The moment a Melynx sees you, it'll try to steal something from you. If it succeeds, it will try to escape as soon as possible. You can retrieve your stolen items by attacking the Melynx before it escapes, or checking their stash at the large cat statue in that area.

Rathian and Rathalos are implied to operate like this. They're actually the female and male of the same species, and their descriptions often refer to them hunting together as a couple. There are even a few missions that pit players against a Rathian and Rathalos together. During these hunts, one of them will become enraged if the other one is hurt too much.

The giant wolves Kamu (male) and Nono (female) Orugaron from Frontier are the Fanged Beast versions of the Rathalos and Rathian. Unlike the Raths, they often fight in tandem, and the Hardcore versions even gain major power boosts should either of the pair get hurt or fall in combat.

Teostra and Lunastra are an Elder Dragon battle couple. Subverted, however, in that they are never fought at the same time due to the game's One Steve Limit mechanic regarding Elder Dragon-type bosses.

Lolo and Ray Gougarf from Frontier are another pair of Fanged Beasts that are always seen together. This is justified, as their primary combat gimmick happens to be Magnetism Manipulation, but subverted in that the two have wildly different temperaments and behavior, with Lolo being the more headstrong of the two and Ray being a Cowardly Boss.

Seltas and Seltas Queen are also an example of this trope, albeit a more abusive relationship.

Bears Are Bad News: Portable 3rd introduces Arzuros, the first bear-like monster throughout the series. It even eats honey to restore stamina. Also in P3rd are the Lagombi, a harelike bear that lives in cold regions, and the Volvidon, an armadillo-like bear that lives in hot places.

The Gunhammer appears to be this, but subverts it due to being a pure melee weapon with no ranged capability.

The Demolisher in 4U is a giant anti-Elder Dragon cannon that can knock the wind out of a Rusted Kushala Daora in one blast.

BFS: Comes in four varieties; the bulky Greatsword, the slimmer Longsword, the smaller Charge Bladenote Most of the blades are as long as a hunter is tall. At first that seems small in comparison to the other BFS until one notices that the blades are swung one handed. and the Swich Axenote Which rivals the Greatsword in size when it transforms. Some examples:

The Akantor Broadsword◊ (Great Sword) is absolutely humongous even compared to other Great Swords.

The Tenebra◊ is a Long Sword that's bigger than most Great Swords and is even bigger than its own sheath. Makes more sense when you consider the sword contains what looks like a miniature black hole. note The Japanese version of the weapon was the Tessaiga from Inuyasha, a semi-sentient weapon that masquerades as a battle-worn katana and who's true form is a katana with a massive blade.

It's implied in some minor dialogue that the Felyne rescuers who haul injured hunters back to base camp perform this regularly. Of course, they don't do it for free, either; The Guildmarm notes that the cash penalties for failing actually go into their payroll.

Pulled off at the end of 4U's Story Mode. The Ace Cadet, thinking that the Kushala Daora has been slain, runs over to check on the dragon and is promptly blown away by Daora'sBreath Weapon. The Ace Commander rushes over to try and protect the Cadet from a second blast, but just as they were about to be struck down the Ace Lancer No Sells the attack with his shield, and they manage to recover and drive off the creature for good.

Some of the in-game intro cinematics feature this, with one or more hunters bailing out a comrade right as they're about to get killed. Here's a sample.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The High Questatrix from 4 Ultimate often lets slip how much she enjoys watching people get hurt, makes a lot of Evil Laughs, and likes to make Stealth Insults at you, before hastily adding she hopes you don't get hurt. She does acknowledge her true nature when comparing herself to the Arena Bambina.

High Questatrix: If you think I'm cold and brutal, just wait until you see what she has up her sleeves. Heh heh...

Blatant Lies: One endgame sidequest chain in 4U involves helping a Felyne of the Assembly follow alleged Hell Hunters, who are traveling across the land in search of a Lunastra and an Ashen Lao Shan-Lung. If you hop over to the Wycoon, you'll find out very quickly that neither a Lunastra nor an Ashen Lao Shan-Lung live anywhere near that particular region of the Monster Hunter world. Eventually subverted: once players complete the final quest in the chain, the felyne janitor who sent you on the quest reveals that they actually did manage to locate a Lunastra and Ashen Lao-Shan Lung after a lengthy journey, defeating them in combat and trading their materials with the Wycoon. If it weren't for the players clearing their path of other monsters, however, they probably would not have made it back to Dundorma safely.

In Unite, finishing every regular monster training mission unlocks Black Fatalis. Beating him unlocks Crimson Fatalis. Beating a total of three Fatalis unlocks White Fatalis. All of them take several quests to kill and are known for their many one-hit-kill attacks.

3 Ultimate has the Hallowed Jhen Mohran, which is unlocked by defeating every other large monster in the game, including subspecies, with the exception of the Savage Deviljho, Lucent Nargacuga, and Abyssal Lagiacrus (all three being Bonus Bosses on their own).

Keeping the monsters dazed with flashbangs, rooted in successive traps, or staggered by Slime explosions, and shooting them to death with a team of gunners.

Hunting monsters with other players, especially the full 4 member team, is easy in general. It's solo hunting monsters that can kill you in 1-3 hits that are the hard fights of this series.

The Fluffy Mask in Tri and 3 Ultimate. Oh, sure, it's probably the second or third mask you'll unlock, and the partner wearing will not attack, but the ability to know where EVERY large monster on the map is located, as well as their type (Brute, flying, etc.) and whether or not they're still aggressive towards you, without having to invest in the Autotracker skill is invaluable. In particular, this makes High-Rank quests and their tendency to throw Deviljhos at you at random much easier, since it decreases the odd of being ambushed.

Despite all of the elemental and status abilities the Shakalakas can be taught, it's usually smarter to just give them Weatherbreaker and Earplugs, which like the Fluffy Mask are obtained pretty early on. Since their attack power is much weaker and less reliable than the hunter(s) themselves, focusing on ways to prevent their supporting dances (particularly healing dances) from being interrupted and turning them into dedicated medics or White Mages is usually much more effective, even if it means doing all of the damage yourself.

In a similar vein to the employment of Shakalakas as support comrades, the Healing Forte is usually a reliable standby, especially when fighting more dangerous monsters. Having less rate of damage is a small price to pay to have healing that is done without having to use items, especially in two-player huntsnote Palicoes are not allowed in hunting parties of three or four where you want to be able to keep yourself and your partner alive due to the "three combined faints and you're out" mechanic.

While the obvious benefit of Support Forte Palicoes is their trap-setting, their Enemy Scan ability is what makes them really useful: pinpointing large monsters as they spawn, warning you when a Paintball is about to wear off, informing you when a monster is weak enough for capture, and so on. Additionally, while most Palicoes panic if a monster becomes enraged or two large monsters appear in the same area, the Support Palicoes will only panic if the player takes too much damage or is pinned by a monster. Monsters becoming enraged is inevitable, and two monsters appearing in the same area is a very common occurrence in High Rank and G-rank quests, but taking too much damage and getting pinned can both be avoided with enough skill, causing the Support Palicoes to be more consistently useful than the others.

While it's tempting to change the Ace Palico's default Leadership Forte into something else, it does have a very useful aspect that the other fortes don't: it never panicsnote he still panics if he gets Blastblight though. In fact, with the Leadership Forte, the Ace Palico often becomes stronger in a situation where most palicoes would panic.

Craft dozens of weapons to adapt to every situation and punish your target's elemental weakness ! Or, if you use a slow weapon that deals a few big hits rather than many small blows, just go for the one with the highest raw power and clobber everything with brute physical damage.

The Hunting Horn's basic Self-Improvement song provides a movement speed increase, allowing you to move as fast as with Sword & Shield and Dual Blades, as well as buffing the horn itself to cut through the enemy in situations where the attack would otherwise bounce off.

The Leather set you start the game with in 3 Ultimate (and can buy from the start in Tri) may have pitiful defense and resistance, but it comes with a Set Bonus that grants you extra uses at gather points, extra-fast gathering, and decreases the chance of your tools breaking. The gloves and helmet are socketed as well, so if you get a weapon with a socket, you can easily increase your gathers even further.

Basic gathering. Until you gain access to services like item replication in 4 or personal farms in 3 Portable, it's the only way to grind for the ingredients to make important items like Mega Potions.

Boss Game: Despite the fact there are collection quests and stuff like Treasure Hunting, boss/monster fighting takes up about 90% of the game.

Each Elder Dragon is fought in one of these. Those places are always unavailable otherwise. In the case of the Underwater Ruins, the lair of Ceadeus, it's also the battlefield to fight Gold Ceadeus and Abyssal Lagiacrus.

In the event that you fight an Elder Dragon in a regular zone and not a specialized arena, the entire map becomes this. It's justified since Elder Dragons are so strong, almost every other creature on the map has already hightailed it out of there long before you arrived. The only exception in the 2nd gen games is the "Tower 1" zone, where the entire fight is restricted to the rooftop, and the rest of the Tower below that particular area is still populated with the local wildlife.

The Tower is a large battlefield set in a field of abandoned ruins, and often is the location where Rare Species are fought.

The Sanctuary in 4 is where you fight the final boss of the storyline Shagaru Magala.

Boss Rush: The "Epic/Marathon" Hunting Quests. Made particularly difficult because you can't change your weapon mid-hunt and each monster is easier/harder to deal with using certain weapons more than others (e.g Dual swords on a Plesioth is pain incarnate; a bow or bowgun with Pierce shots will make sashimi out of one). In 3 Ultimate, these missions become the largest part of the final rank chapter (9 stars).

While Gunlances have to reload, they never run out of ammo. Guess those bullets were just for Bowguns after all.

Normal Shot level one for the Bowgun, and (at least up until Unite) the Autoreload skill actually makes it so you don't have to reload, either.

In 3 Ultimate, limit-breaking a Light or Heavy Bowgun lets you cram more ammo into them than should be logically possible: loading all types of ammo to their max capacity at once for the Light Bowgun, and getting a huge magazine limit increase and the ability to use Wyvern Fire shotsnote these were originally only usable in Gunlances for the Heavy Bowgun. It comes at the cost of their respective Rapid Fire and Crouching Fire abilities however, though you can return them back to normal whenever you want.

If you can clear all the training missions with all the weapons, you probably don't need that Sword Saint Piercing. Same goes for the stuff that's unlocked once you clear G Rank in Unite and Ultimate. Also applies for getting a full set of White Fatalis armor.

In Tri, most HR51-armorsets count (Deviljho, Alatreon, High-Rank-Ceadeus and High-Rank-Jhen-Mohran). Getting these means you already killed everything you can kill. Multiple times.

In 3 Ultimate, crafting a full set of Nether armor means you've hunted literally every monster in the game, due to being made from parts from the last three monsters available, one of which requires hunting every monster before it.

In 4/4U, the F Bannerman set for Palicoes. If you can already defeat Akantor, chances are you've already got much better equipment for your Palicoes than the F Bannerman set provides, despite being unique.

In Frontier, the Battle Tonfas are this. Despite being considered an overpowered weapon by a good number of players, the main requirements to craft it involve finishing a series of story quests as well as grinding both your Hunter Rank and (Weapon) Skill Rank up to 999...at which point you may already have a bunch of incredibly strong weapons and armor at your disposal.

Defeating the Phantom Doragyurosu in Frontier grants you rare scales that are only useful as trophy items.

Breakable Weapons: Downplayed, as they don't really break, but lose sharpness. Losing sharpness lessens the damage they do and also will make them bounce off of the monster's hide, interrupting your combos and reducing your damage output further. So while you never lose your weapon, it can become next to useless if you don't keep it sharp.

British Coppers: The Baggi Billy, Helm and Mail can make your Palico look like one.

Brought Down to Normal: 4 Ultimate introduces Wystones, items with a cooldown that provide your weapon with a temporary buff. They allow players to bring Frenzied monsters back to normal for a while if they attack the monster with their Wystone-enhanced weapon enough.

The Swamp in 1 (old) and 2 (new). Subverted in that the muck is only ankle high in a few places at worst and never impedes movement, although poisonous gases do flood certain sections at nighttime.

The Flooded Forest in 3rd generation games combines this and Jungle Japes. Subverted in Portable 3rd, wherein the submerged parts of the forest have dried up due to the summer season.

Portions of the Primal Forest in 4/4U appear to be marshland, especially the outer plains and inner regions. An interesting variation occurs in that the poisonous muck ponds that appear in the innermost areas may not be naturally occurring but are rather remnants of a long-dead Dalamadur's venomous bodily fluids.

The Aptonoths seem to be at the very bottom of the food chain. They're preyed on by both hunters and monsters, and they almost never fight back.

The carnivorous (Great) Jaggi have been either eaten by Ludroths, killed by Lagiacrus or Barroth, Rathalos or stomped on then mercilessly eaten by a Deviljho. It can be done among players as well.

Felynes also occasionally suffer some abuse from the larger monsters, particularly in the "Monster Life" videos. One gets chased by a pair of Uragaan in its life video, and another is sent flying during the Brachydios Life after being caught up in a fight between a Brachydios and an Agnaktor.

Calling Your Attacks: In 4U, the Ace Palico does this with the Horn skills and Team Attacks. Justified in the former case, because the Ace Palico can learn many different types of Horns, so having him call out what kind of Horn he's using helps the player understand what kind of effect they're going to get.

With the Survivor skill found on equipment such as the HellHunter Jacket, your attacks get a stackable boost each time you faint.

Apex Monsters in 4U are this, having successfully resisted the Frenzy Virus to become immune and gain a tremendous boost in power instead of dying like other Frenzy victims.

Felyne Helpers/Palicoes can have an ability called "Fall 7x, Get Up 8x" (Unite) or "Nine Lives" (4U) in which they resuscitate with a stacking buff each time they faint. For the former, this affects attack and defense, and stacks up to eight times, while the latter affects either attack or defense, depending on the variant, and stacks up to nine times. While some Palicoes may come packed with either the Attack or Defense variant of "Nine Lives", the unique Palico Smirk AKA "Whitescruff" specializes in this, wielding both "Nine Lives" skills.

While a real Plesioth is nowhere to be found, you can catch a Young Plesioth and Green Plesioth on occasion in the Casting Machine minigame. This is required if you want the Plesioth armor set in 4/4U.

Trenya the Felyne treasure hunter from the 2nd gen games sometimes appears in the Meownster Hunter minigame, especially when rare Treasures are available.

After getting to G-Rank and completing any of the two quests with Zamtrios in them (finishing via subquest counts), you may find the Argosy Captain and Neko (Means Cat) on the shores of Cheeko Sands, who proceed to explain that they let a Zamtrios chase them until they wound up there. Unfortunately, the same Zamtrios won't let them get back to Moga Village, so you have to hunt it.

The first DLC Episodic Quest "Down to Business" features the felyne courier Nyan Jirou (renamed "The Transpurrter"), the felyne Bartender, and the questgiver Konoha (renamed the "Yukumo Sweetheart" in a nod to Tri) from Yukumo Village, who ask you to help them fetch materials for their hometown's budding tourism industry. Finishing the questline will allow you to hire Konoha as your new housekeeper, replacing the Felyne butler you get at the start of the game.

The second DLC Episodic Quest "Code 16010" features a felyne named "Felcote" as your questgiver; observant veteran players may recognize her to be the Freedom Unite questgiver "Nekoht".

The third DLC Episodic Quest features Cha-Cha, Kayamba and Aisha the Moga Sweetheart on a harebrained adventure to recover yet another Shakalaka mask.

Camera Screw: Try running next to a wall or rock outcropping; you'll regret it soon enough, especially if you have motion sickness. Made worse when large monsters cause this to happen by knocking you into a tight corner and trapping you there. 4 Ultimate thankfully remedies this to a good degree, though the same can't be said for when you're fighting a Najarala.

The Prototype Saw-slicer. Dual-wielded chainsaws. There is also the Chain Blade/Chainslaughter, a BFS/katana chainsaw. Both of which do lightning damage.

The Switch Axe can perform chainsaw-like attacks. In particular, the Mundus Switch Axe has a buzzsaw tip that transforms into a literal chainsaw sword.

Challenge Gamer: In games that allow modding, many players produce differently sized, stronger or more numerous versions of regular monsters. Many also stick to one 'trademark' weapon regardless of how suitable it is for a quest, refuse to use items and traps or decide to solo online-only superbosses like the infamous Fatalis. There are players who do all of that and more.

Character Customization: Creating your hunter was originally very limited, but the number of choices became more robust as the series progressed, with 4/4U having the most options of the main games.

Character Level: Notably absent. Played straight in Unite and 4/4U with the Felyne Fighters/Palicos, as well as in Tri and 3 Ultimate with Cha-Cha and Kayamba the Shakalakas. It's played straight with the Hunter Rank system in the online modes of the PC and console games. Completing quests awards Hunter Rank Points, which contribute to raising a player's Hunter Rank. In most cases, clearing out all the quests in one tier won't be enough to unlock the next set. You'll have to redo quests over and over until your HR is high enough. It doesn't really make a difference though, since you'll be farming the wyverns for their armor and weapons anyway.

Charles Atlas Superpower: Your hunter, a normal-ish human, can fish out a 20-30 meter Plesioth, as well as lift, wield and strike with weapons up to twice their own size.

Tends to be zig zagged. Any monster can be killed with any weapon once you understand the limitations and openings specific to each weapon. However, some weapons have a huge advantage over others against certain monsters. e.g Any close range weapon against a Plesioth is frustrating as hell since it has the hitbox from hell and it sometimes refuses to leave the water note although the Plesioth is actually far less threatening in the water, since it can no longer hipcheck, tailspin, or slither, and is limited to dashes and lasers. A bowgun or bow prevents both of these. In 3 Ultimate, it's possible to fight it underwater, but Plesioth becomes good at fighting there as well.

Played straight by the Treasure Hunting quests in Freedom Unite. Due to many regular routes and shortcuts in Treasure Hunt maps being blocked off by giant boulders, and the general difficulty of procuring Barrel Bombs to destroy them with in said mapsnote further compounded by the "No Personal Items" restriction, the best weapons for these quests tend to be the Hammer and Hunting Horn, both of which can be used to shatter rocks with ease and the latter providing its own Magic Music bonuses.

A Plesioth can die by being fished out of the water. Taken to extremes in 4U, where this happens to it every time it's caught during the Fishing minigame.

In rare cases, boss monsters can die by accidentally getting hit by a Mook. Unfortunately, this can also happen to players who are very low on health...

In Tri, letting Cha-Cha get the kill can feel like this; though he can reach decent levels of power, he's still not nearly as strong as your hunter. Same goes for Kayamba in 3 Ultimate.

Felyne Comrades/Palicoes in Unite/4U. Similar to the Cha-Cha and Kayamba example, it's very possible for them to topple or even finish off monsters with a well placed hit. Made easier by the fact that players can craft stronger weapons for them to use in 4U.

Seregios, a flying wyvern introduced in 4U, has a fighting style centered around this trope, preferring agile multi-hitting attacks and bleeding out its prey as opposed to dealing heavy damage in one blow, though it does have a couple of hard hitting moves.

For players, simply getting stepped on by the larger Wyverns is one of the more humiliating ways to go.

Thrown objects do damage to enemy monsters, albeit the bare minumum you can inflict. It is possible to kill a monster with a Paintball, or if you're extremely unlucky, a monster you're supposed to capture instead of kill by way of a Tranq Bomb.

Colossus Climb: Many of the larger Elder Dragons, such as Jhen/Dah'ren Mohran, Lao-Shan Lung, Yamatsukami and Shen Gaoren, are big enough to walk on. 4 even introduces a mechanic called "mounting" which allows players to jump on the backs of staggered monsters and attack them with a carving knife until the monster falls over or they get flung off.

Combination Attack: In 4 and 4 Ultimate, having two Palicoes to a team allows them to do one of these on occasion (or on demand, if your Sub Palico has a particular skill). Each Palico knows one of three different kinds of attack: the Purrtuoso, the Flying F-Bomb, or the Rath-of-Meow. Some Palicoes may even have elemental or otherwise unusual variants of the above, such as the Rath-of-Signal, a Rath-of-Meow that the player can summon on command with the Signal button.

Commonplace Rare: The Disposable Earplugs in 4U. They function identically to the HG Earplugs skill, but It Only Works Once. You would think that earplugs would be all over the place, but Disposable Earplugs aren't available until very far into the postgame, and must be purchased from a special shop that only deals in Caravan Points (which are harder to accumulate than Zenny). However, granted that it gives you the power of HG Earplugs without needing the skill, they are very useful.

Competitive Balance: Each of the weapons fits a role, even as many new weapons are added to the roster:

Missions where you need to carry something in your hands back to the base camp are hated for this. At first the map looks normal with the usual mix of docile and violent creatures running around... until you pick up the object in question, causing every area to be filled with violent monsters just to make you drop it. Even worse, the quickest path back to camp is often not an option because of enormous, area boundary-blocking boulders that appeared out of thin air.

Hunters immediately get taken to another area when touching an area boundary. Monsters, on the other hand, are not affected by this, only moving to the adjacent area if they choose to. This means monsters can waste your time hanging around outside the boundary, and if you slay a monster while it's beyond the area boundary (easily possible with ranged weapons), no carves for you!

Monsters can also shake off hunters mounting them by carrying the hunter right through an area boundary.

Confusion Fu: One reason why Frenzied monsters are so dangerous is just how random they are. They don't follow the monster's usual attack patterns, they can perform combos they can't normally use, they move either slower or faster than usual, sometimes within the same move if it consists of multiple attacks, and they constantly switch between being exhausted, neutral, and enraged. Sometimes they'll even attack empty space for no reason. In a Frenzied Brachydios's case, this even applies to its slime, as they gain a randomness property where slime will either take a really long time to explode, or spontaneously explode even if it's not enraged.

If you faint in a mission, your reward money is cut by a third, which is painful if you already spent most of that money on ammunition and supplies. If you faint three times, however, all items you used on the mission disappear, you lose a small amount of money, and you have to repeat the mission again. And the worst part? Most missions usually take around 20 minutes to complete. You do still get to bring home anything in your inventory, which may or may not contain rare monster tails/drops obtained from battling monsters. This sort of thing could be hard to keep track of. To put it simply, if you complete a quest or fail it by getting knocked out three times, you don't get back anything you used up, but you keep whatever items you found. If you abandon a quest, you get back whatever items you brought and used up, but anything you found is lost.

The first time that you are KO'd in a mission, you'll lose any boosts that were earned from eating (or hot spring bonuses) before the hunt (aside from those earned from the food's skills) unless the meal provided the "Felyne Foodie" skill. If a monster was already taking out half of your health in one shot despite of the health and defense boost from your feast, for instance, imagine trying to do the rest of the quest without it. Consumed-item related boosts (such as demondrug, armorskin, nutrients, power juice, etc.) are also lost after fainting.

Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted. Most monsters can suffer from practically any status effect, and may be particularly vulnerable to one or two.

Averted, in that if you go to a volcano, you'll take continuous damage unless you use a Cool Drink, or have the Heat Resistance skill up to 10 points. Stepping close to or on lava (in some games) will also cause heat damage. Terrain skills reduce at 10 and provide immunity at 15 to lava, and in some games, Heat Resistance at 15 points provide immunity to both types of heat damage.

The elder dragons Teostra and Lunastra have this as a battle mechanic, so much so that Kushala Daora armor sets, designed for use against them, have Terrain Damage Negate (or in 2 cases, the end-game Anti Fire Dragon skill) on low, high, and G-rank.

Played straight in 4U, once you get the lava flowing freely through the mining town of Harth. There's a river of it running through the middle of town, and not a single soul is complaining; in fact, the native Troverians even love it when the lava is present, since they use it for their livelihood.

Conservation of Ninjutsu: Since time and item allotments do not change depending on quest type, missions that require players to hunt multiple monsters at once will also scale down their health to make them easier to kill. The real difficulty lies in keeping multiple monsters apart and fighting them separately, and/or managing your item usage. This is subverted, however, in the case of unstable environments wherein boss monsters other than your designated quarry can spawn at any time: since the invading monster isn't part of the quest objective, both your quarry and the invader are treated as fully powered enemies.

The Val Habar Market proprietor has a twin sister who happens to be the Fishmongress of Moga Village. Bonus points when the three fishermen from Tri contact her regarding a quest, and she makes an indirect reference to the Player Character from the third game (see Mythology Gag below).

4's Wycoon replaces the Farm by allowing you to send materials to other locations in order to get them replicated. The places you can send carts to reference previous locales in the series, such as the Pokke Village Farm and the Kokoto Mushroom Farm. He can also trade you parts of monsters not in 4 to make armor sets and weapons of monsters from previous installments.

You can make a Palico version of the Mafumofu armor and the clothes Felyne Guides in Loc Lac City wore for your Palicoes.

A downloadable Episodic Quest features Nekoht, the Pokke Village Felyne Elder from Freedom Unite, as your questgiver, albeit renamed as "Felcote". And she's still every bit as secretive as before.

There is an NPC in Val Habar wearing the Yukumo armor set and a Long Sword, the same ensemble worn by the male hunter in the intro to Portable 3rd. His speech pattern is even similar to the Argosy Captain's from 3U, minus the gag dubbing.

In one sidequest chain, the Grand Guru of Cathar receives a message from his brother, who happens to be the Wyverian chief of Jumbo Village from dos. The message warns the Grand Guru about a Kushala Daora that had previously terrorized Jumbo Village and Pokke Village and is en route to Cathar.

Once you get the airship, a cutscene shows your caravan flying over what appears to be the Snowy Mountains from the second game, complete with a group of hunters waving at you.

Trenya, the Felyne treasure hunter NPC from Unite, occasionally shows up during the Meownster Hunter minigame.

Guildmarm heavily implies that she's close friends with the Guild Sweetheart, as she mentions an "island friend" who runs the Quest Counter there in one of her dialogue lines.

A downloadable Event Quest has the hunter helping defend the Argosy in the Great Desert from a Dah'ren Mohran.

The Argosy Captain and Neko (Means "Cat") show up in person on Cheeko Sands to request the player's aid in fighting off a Zamtrios.

Cha-Cha, Kayamba and the Moga Sweetheart appear in a downloadable Event Quest while searching for a Shakalaka mask. Naturally, they mess things up by getting sidetracked and losing said mask yet again.

The biggest continuity nod is Dundorma City itself, previously the location for online quests in Dos before its servers were decommissioned, as well as the map used for the Town quests in the 2nd gen games.

Cool Pet: Gendrome, Gypceros, Iodrome, Yian Gargua, Yian Kut-Ku, Shogun Ceanataur, Diablos, Gravios, Khezu, Rathalos, and Rathian can all be kept as pets in Frontier G. Meeting a set of difficult requirements allows you a small chance at taming a Rajang.

Cool Ship: The sheer number of water-based ships, sand-based dragonships, and airships used to hunt Elder Dragons certainly count.

Cordon Bleugh Chef: You can invoke this yourself by creating any food combination that grants the "Unlucky Cat" skill. The result winds up so bad that you collapse onto the floor, and as long as you hang around in town, you lose the ability to run and start collapsing randomly. Taking this skill into a Quest starts you with 25 Health and 25 Max Stamina. Although in town you can regain your balance after checking out the Item Chest, which has rather amusing implications.

The Lance and Charge Blade both have special counters as part of their arsenal, which players can choose to build around. The Lance can initiate a special guard stance which automatically results in a powerful counter thrust if the hunter blocks an attack with it, while a regular block or Guard Point using the Charge Blade's shield note the latter of which is itself a counterattack, provided your shield is in Element Up mode allows a counter into an Axe slash or an (Super) Amped Elemental Discharge. Both will only work if the hunter wasn't knocked back too far, however.

G-Rank Plum Daimyo Hermitaur in 4U is fond of this, briefly holding its claws in front of its face to fake out players with an impenetrable guard before unleashing its water blast.

At higher ranks, Zinogre gains several fake-out moves by delaying its attacks during a combo. Among the most notorious are its Rising Tackle right after a leaping bodyslam, its hugely delayed lightning claw slam combo, or its shoulder charge following a tail slam. Overzealous players will quickly find themselves Cross Countered if they rush in without a thought.

Gold Rathian is one of the most deceptive, performing tail somersaults at the end of its bullrush attack when it would otherwise be vulnerable. Worse yet, it can also do this immediately after getting up from a knockdown. It almost seems as if it took wakeup antiair lessons from Guile.

Covered in Mud: Tri introduces the Barroth, the love child of a Tyrannosaurus rex and a Bulldozer that is often covered in mud. It has a habit of shaking said mud off, and any hunters unfortunate enough to get hit by the flying globs are covered in quickly-hardening mud that makes it impossible to attack (and open to getting plowed under by the Barroth!).

In Frontier G, the was a briefly available (if it's not still there) quest that had you hunt the director. He's dressed up as a Congalala, carries a cartridge of Frontier G around with him, and fights like a normal Congalala, but with some variation in his attacks; for example, his claw attacks throw confetti, and he may set up fireworks. Observe.

As an April Fool's joke, Capcom released a quest in Frontier G7 that involved hunting the producer. He's dressed up like a purple Gogomoa, and his attacks include using a Gunlance to produce fireworks which spell out, "Thank you for your continued help!" in kanji, landing on his rear to make copies of Frontier G7 fall from the sky, and throwing confetti. See it for yourself.

Taken to ludicrous heights. While it's relatively normal for the player, a monster can be near death and still be in rage mode, where it will be moving faster than normal and putting more force behind its attacks.

While played fairly straight in that monsters enter rage (aforementioned 'moving faster and dealing more damage' mode) more easily when nearly dead, also averted in that after breaking certain body parts monsters may not be able to use some of their attacks, and in Tri monsters become tired after throwing out powerful attacks or being hit by concussive attacks.

Also, when brought below a certain health threshold, they will try to escape by slowly limping away, practically making them sitting ducks.

Also when the monsters are below a certain health threshold, they will always try to sleep whenever not engaged in battle. Did we mention that a sleeping monster takes three times the normal damage? Using bombs and the Great Sword, you've basically guaranteed a kill once they've entered this state.

Played straight with the Dragonship when fighting Jhen Mohran in 3 Ultimate. In spite of all the abuse it takes, it looks perfectly intact up until the moment the Jhen Mohran delivers the finishing blow, and then all of a sudden, QUEST FAILED. Same goes for its relative, the Dah'ren Mohran, in 4 Ultimate.

Critical Hit: Each weapon has an "Affinity" stat that determines the chance of one upon contact. A positive Affinity percentage will allow a weapon to nail Critical Hits; the higher the stat, the better the odds per hit. A negative Affinity inverts this trope with a chance of "feeble hits" that do less damage than normal.

Crazy-Prepared: Playing this game requires you to equip yourself accordingly to whatever you're going up against. In some cases you simply won't win or get what you want without the right tools. For the record, this means arming yourself with the proper weapon, an armor set that complements this weapon or is useful against the monster, and several items ranging from healing potions to Flash Bombs to traps. Hell, you even have to consider details like keeping your hunter well fed, his or her weapon sharp, look out for the climate of the area you're going to (going into the desert without something cool to drink is generally a bad idea) and even the weather (some tools do not work in rain or snow, others ONLY work there...)

Cursed with Awesome: The Frenzy Virus in 4. If it fully infects, it stops your natural health regeneration. However, attack enough while infected with it and you not only recover, but also gain boosts to your attack power and Affinity.

David Versus Goliath: The premise of the whole franchise: average human beings versus colossal superpowered beasts.

Death from Above: Both hunters and monsters can pull this off; it's particularly egregious in the case of the monsters, many of which are classified as flying creatures. Some examples:

The Bows' Arc attacks. They fire a shot into the air, then rain back down some distance in front of you, with effects such as a concentrated rapid-fire Rain of Arrows or an explosive blast. Some bows in 4 substitute Arc shots for Power shots instead.

Beginning in 4U, Blademaster hunters gain jumping melee attacks which can topple monsters with enough hits, but the two weapons that fit this trope best are the Lance and Insect Glaive, both of which have built-in leap attacks as opposed to other melee weapons that require a ledge or wall to jump off of. The Battle Tonfas in Frontier also have leap attacks in its repertoire, albeit taken Up to Eleven since it can double-, triple- or even quadruple-jump.

Many monsters love to do this, making it difficult to counter them since they're often in an unreachable spot. Flying monsters, such as Rathalos, Barioth and the elder dragon Kushala Daora, prefer to hover in the air and spam projectiles or divebomb players; Khezu and his cousin Gigginox can cling to ceilings and employ Vertical Kidnapping or projectile spamming; and certain other monsters like Brachydios, Tigrex, Lavasioth, Congalala and Rajang love to abuse their devastating leap attacks.

The Fatalis dragons and their cousin, the Dire Miralis, have several attacks that involve meteors or lightning coming from the sky to hit unsuspecting hunters; these attacks also tend to count as One Hit Kills. Dalamadur has a similar move involving burning metal meteors, and Gogmazios has a variant which involves unleashing a giant explosive tar blast on the ground after flying high into the air.

Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In 4/4U's Expeditions, since you have unlimited time and can take unlimited retries, the worst that can happen when fainting is losing your Food buffs (unless you have Felyne Foodie) and needing to backtrack to where the monster you were fighting defeated you. The latter part can be the most aggravating if it was very far in and is about to leave the area.

What you have to do to take down most of the monsters. Some monsters can take up to 40 minutes to kill. This is mostly for stuff like Fatalis.

One Mission late in 4U is actually called this, that being Apex Form Seregios

Decon-Recon Switch: Tri has a quest called "Wyvern Preservation", where the client points out that the hobby of hunting monsters has dealt a huge blow to the wyvern population, thereby deconstructing the concept of the series. The client then reconstructs the concept by having you go on a quest to bring back wyvern eggs to help preserve the population.

Description Porn: They manage to do this with some weapons and armors, despite the small text character limit. Just check the descriptions for the various Rathalos sets, for instance.

All elemental weapons to an extent, but special mention goes to Dragon element weapons which are made with Elder Dragon blood, the content of which has been baffling the Guild and scholars for some time; Unite seems to imply that the blood becomes toxic once it leaves the dragon's body and starts to decay. Dragon Shot ammunition, on the other hand, is made with Dragonfell Berries note AKA "Dragon Seeds" in Freedom 2/Unite which contain toxins that are apparently harmful to elder dragons.

Wystones, "things" that you apply to your weapon like a Whetstone to gain anti-Frenzy/Apex buffs and the ability to temporarily negate Frenzy/Apex. No one knows what it is or what it's made of, all anyone knows is that it's really awesome at fighting Frenzied/Apex monsters, and no one in the story questions it. Though the Wystones were made by Fantastic Science-practicing Wyverians.

The Armor Skill "Potential" will give you a big Defense boost when your health is below 40% (and if you get 15 points in it, you'll get an Attack boost too). The Kitchen Skill "Felyne Heroics" doesn't kick in until your HP is down to 10 or less, but it gives you an even bigger Attack and Defense boost. Some expert players use Heroics and deliberately injure themselves down to 10 HP for it to activate, allowing them to kill whatever they're hunting much faster but at the risk of getting downed with a single hit. This is particularly useful for bosses that'd kill you in a single hit anyways (all the Fatalis "brothers" in particular).

On the flip side, a lot of monsters will go into near-permanent rage when near death - they move faster and hit harder. Special mention to Shogun Ceanataur, who does go into literal perma-rage as soon as you smash one of his claws.

Determinator: The hunters, of course. Considering how extremely hard to kill their prey is, this is practically a requirement to make it far in the business. Also present among some of the monsters. Special mention goes to Tigrex; this wyvern is made out of the following things: 50% determination and 50% pure rage. He's so stubborn that, if you dodge his charge, he won't just finish it and then turn around to try again like other wyverns, oh no, he is going to change the direction mid-charge just to get you, and he'll do that up to four times. Combine this with him being a Lightning Bruiser and a creature whose Rage Mode is absolutely devastating and you'll understand why he's considered the bane of many hunters.

If you try to cook meat off a cliff, the BBQ spit will have braces connecting it to the cliff face.

If you get Fireblight (that is, set on fire), you can put it out by stopping, dropping, and dodge-rolling. And the rolling around caused by monsters throwing you across the field? That counts, too. You can also roll through water to put it out faster.

Nargacuga's eyes glow red when in its rage mode and leave a short light trail when it moves. If you deal enough damage to its head that it "breaks," it will have a scar over its left eye. The left eye will no longer glow or leave a light trail while it's in rage mode.

The Gore Magala is immune to flash bombs due to it not having functional eyes. Once it sheds however it's eyes becomes functional and it can be affected by flash bombs.

In 4U, activating multiplayer will cause every single NPC's dialogue to change to something related to hunting with friends or the Gathering Hall. This includes Caravan members, shopkeepers, miscellaneous service NPCs, and every single other NPC of insignificant importance.

The Greatsword class in general. They're slow, have a lot of ending lag, and maximizing damage involves standing still long enough for a full three charges. That said, they're generally considered the most powerful weapons in the game. For example, once you learn the timing and placement, a Great Sword will absolutely destroy a Tigrex with little effort.

The Gunlance. It has worse mobility than the Lance and eats through weapon Sharpness like popcorn, but has the same solid defense, more fluid combos and unblockable attacks in the form of Shelling, Wyvern's Fire and Shell Burst. With the correct technique and armor skills, a savvy Gunlancer can land dozens of point blank flame gouts at monsters for unmitigated damage and even use the recoil to dodge attacks. Little wonder why many Japanese gamers consider it the "Ultimate Roman(tic) Weapon".

The Hunting Horn is very difficult to get acclimated to, with its slow and awkward swings and the need for maintaining constant upkeepnote In addition to Horn buffs being temporary, Hunting Horn users need to keep their Self Improvement Buffs (white-white or purple-purple note combos) active, or they won't be as effective in a fight. However, it has as much damage and knockout power as a Hammer, and can stack multiple buffs on an entire hunting party at will with its note combinations, ranging from unlimited Stamina to protection from roars.

The Charge Blade itself is fairly easy to handle, but utilizing its ultimate attack, the Super Amped Element Discharge, can be tricky. It requires a lot of setup before you can actually use itnote You have to enter "Element Up" mode, which consumes all charge phials, and its power is in proportion to the amount of phial charge the weapon has, it needs the shockwave to hit instead of the weapon to achieve full effect, consumes Element Up mode and all your phials, has an even longer wind up and die down than the AED, can't be stopped once started, and has extremely limited redirection ability. However, it has respectable range, has unblockable properties similar to the Spirit Slash and Gunlance shelling, and if you can land the last hit, it is either a certain knockout for any monster below G rank (if impact phials are used and aimed for the head), or deals massive elemental damage resulting in a high chance of breaking parts. It's entirely possible to send a weakened monster from sleeping to death with a Super AED to the head.

A second difficult aspect of Charge Blades is the "Guard Point" technique, which grants an automatic block during the end of Sword and Shield Mode's Roundslash, the beginning of a Morph to Axe, or the end of a Morph to Sword. The timing required for a Guard Point to work is quite strict, but the move has several improvements over regular guarding. Not only is the block strength slightly higher for Guard Points (meaning less knockback), but utilizing them with Element Up Mode active creates an explosion upon a successful block. It is possible to flinch, KO or even kill a charging monster using a Guard Point should their head come in contact with your shield, e.g. Diablos or Tigrex.

The Lance playstyle known as "Evasion Lancing" mostly eschews blocking in favor of the ability to dodge three times in a row. Given how strict evasion windows are and how slow the Lance is, one can expect the level of skill necessary to use this method. However, since the Lance's backhops have much better recovery than tanking hits and thus provide more opportunities to counterattack, mastering this technique can turn a Lance user from a Mighty Glacier into a Lightning Bruiser.

The "Adrenaline" Armor Skill. Getting it to activate requires the health bar to be at a dangerously low level, enough for a monster to nudge you to death. Once it kicks in, however, your attack power goes through the roof, enabling you to continuously flinch monsters with ease. It is not uncommon to see Challenge Gamers use this skill to take down even G-Rank Elder Dragons in less than five minutes.

Gunner hunting can be seen as this, due to ranged weapons having low raw damage compared to most melee weapons, and Gunner armor having substantially weaker defense than Blademaster armor. However, since Gunners attack at range where they are less easily interrupted, this means that they can have a more consistent damage output than the average Blademaster, who has to stay close to monsters and therefore has a higher risk of getting mauled. With the right combination of damage-oriented armor skills, item buffs and proper positioning / evasion techniques, a Gunner can turn into a potent Glass Cannon, moreso if they employ the aforementioned Adrenaline skill.

The first happens once you start doing high-rank quests; it only takes a few mistakes to get clobbered, and some previously trivial monsters can knock you out with three hits, especially the ones that get new attacks. Once you're doing G-rank quests, all bets are off. Specific examples of this case include:

The first big one is probably when the player fights a Yian Kut-Ku for the first time. Before this, missions were simple slayingxMooks and gathering missions. The Yian Kut-ku shows the lengths that the player has to go to beat the bosses without getting slapped silly (analyzing attack patterns, finding weak spots, figuring out what weapons are best, etc.)

In Tri, the Barroth is the first sign that the gloves are coming off, and it's usually considered to be a harder fight than the next couple of fights after it, largely in part of the fact that unlike some of the later fights, it has armour, is very fast, and that its charge attack hits like a truck.

3 Ultimate also has the Purple Ludroth, the first "subspecies" that the player will encounter as well as the introduction to High-Rank quests. There is a reason that most high-rank armour usually has at least twice the base defense of low-rank armour, and it is borderline impossible to have any until the Ludroth is defeated, meaning that you are definitely going to feel the difference.

In 4, replacing the "role" of Yian Kut-Ku is Kecha Wacha. Not only does a newer hunter have to do everything listed above in the Kut-Ku description, they also have to deal with the new vine/web swinging and climbing mechanics that this monster will happily abuse in some areas. There are Sonic Bombs in the supply box for a very good reason.

Disc One Final Dungeon: In Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, it's the rank chapter (fifth) that was originally the last one in the Wii version (Monster Hunter Tri). After you defeat Ceadeus, originally the Final Boss of Tri and then the Disc One Final Boss in Ultimate, you'll be presented the first of the high-rank new chapters.

Through smart trading with Veggie Elders, one can easily obtain rare materials or materials not normally accessible. Also, the optional Trenya's Boat allows one to get things such as Dragonwoods or Dragonmosses way before you're supposed to.

In Freedom 2, the Long Sword "Devil Slicer."

If you're a Hammer user, in MHF2 and MHFU, the Bull Tusk Hammer can be made without leaving Hunter Rank 1 and has 936 raw damage.

The Insecticutter Dual Swords in 3 Ultimate qualify, if only for their element. While most Dragon weapons require either late game bosses or a very lucky random Rustshard drop, the Insecticutters can be easily forged from Low-Rank insect parts and various ores and bones; a savvy hunter can easily nab all of the required materials long before they reach High-Rank. Since most monsters have, at best, neutral Dragon resistance (and most of the ones that don't are found very early in the game), this Dual Sword set can allow a hunter to waltz through a decent portion of the game without bothering with any other weapon.

In network mode for 3 Ultimate, as long as you're high rank you can take on ANY high rank mission. If you have a good team you can get drops to make HR 5 gear when you're still HR 3.

As far as your Palico goes in 4 Ultimate, anyway. By downloading a free day one patch, you can acquire a stash of six Super Mushrooms. You can then use them to craft Rare 4 gear for your Palico at the start of the game. This equipment will last straight through the entire main scenario, even after you acquire the ability to craft new Palico gear.

In 4 Ultimate, upon unlocking Expeditions, Guild Quests and the Rust Abolisher (as early as after the first quest of the second village), Expeditions and Guild Quests can be run repeatedly for Rusted Weapons and Abrasives (to polish said weapons). Since these weapons can have random stats and elements (including Dragon), with some luck a hunter can end up with a weapon twice as good as what they're supposed to have at the moment, possibly up to High Rank.

In 4 Ultimate, once players unlock the first set of High Rank caravan quests, they can apply for a quest that pits them against multiple Nerscylla one after the other, each at only a fraction of its health. Farming this quest will allow players to quickly build the full Nerscylla S armor set, which can be gemmed for a total of 4 skills, including two that makes setting traps/bombs and capturing monsters easier. Assuming players haven't done the Gathering Hall yet, this set is strong and versatile enough to last all the way up to Rank 7. The weapons you can make out of the same Nerscylla parts also happen to have white sharpness, making them strong in early and mid game.

Want Dah'ren Mohran materials in 4 Ultimate, but don't have the HR 3→4 Urgent Quest available yet or know someone who does? The Event Quest "Sand Blasted" pits you against a Dah'ren Mohran under the same conditions, and can be initiated or joined with no Hunter Rank restrictions.

In the original game and its Updated Re-release, the Great Sword class included katanas and scythes. Beginning with the second game, these two were given their own unique "Longsword" classification, with a more combo-oriented moveset. The Greatsword in turn became more focused on high-powered Charged Attacks.

The Palette Swapped monsters (e.g. Azure Rathalos, Pink Rathian, etc.) were once merely stronger variations of their main species, but beginning in Tri the subspecies were given unique attacks and behavioral patterns to set them apart, such as Pink Rathian's spinning tail backflip and Azure Rathalos' exploding aerial bites.

The Dreaded: Most of the monsters have intimidating Red Baron status, but there are a handful of monsters that are even met in-universe with fear. Namely the flagship monsters and the Final Boss, which can go so far as describing them as gods, demons, and bringers of the end. The Guildmarm in 4U even lampshades the Tigrex being the "bane of hunters".

Dual Tonfas: A weapon class introduced in Frontier G Genuine is this, with it having two modes: A typical tonfa mode where it deals Strike damage and a tonfa with a spike on the end which deals Pierce damage.

Dual Wielding: Dual swords, with which you can belt out a continuous barrage of attacks, but you can't block.

Flinging "Dung Bombs" at boss monsters is an effective way to show who's the real boss here. They simply flee in terror (or disgust). This attack must be executed stealthily to be any effective, though. Alternatively, you can chuck one at a monster that's pinning you to get it off.

Congalalas and Emerald Congalalas lob their fresh excrements at you as ranged attacks. The resulting status effect renders hunters too disgusting to even consume anything (wears off with time or with deodorant).

The Stink Mask in 3 Ultimate allows the hunter's AI partners to throw Dung Bombs as well, making it incredibly invaluable in situations where a hunter can expect to fight two or more monsters at once; which is most of the time in High-Rank and G-Rank. As a small bonus, the Shakalaka wearing it makes plenty of scatological jokes.

Easter Egg: In some games, if you turn the camera up to the sky, you may occasionally see a hot-air balloon flying in the distance. If you use the Wave Gesture while it's onscreen, it will flash a signal and show you all of the large monsters on the map for several seconds. In 4U, the hot-air balloon is given a backstory as Dundorma's Elder Dragon-spotting balloon, the Dragonseer, which keeps an eye out for impending Elder Dragon attacks.

Eldritch Location: The Everwood, the setting of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate's Expeditions, changes every time you enter. While it would appear that it could be explained by the player simply entering a different area of the Everwood each time, once you hit the postgame, you unlock new locales in the Everwood that fully cement this trope. One moment you could be walking through run-down ruins, the next you're walking through a sandy desert, and then vice versa.

The Manga features a protagonist that Dual Wields Wind-element Blades, something unobtainable in-game. This fact is outright stated in the manga itself: the protagonist's partner has never even heard of a Wind element.

There is one monster claimed to possess "Wind" element: Kushala Daora. This isn't really an element so much as it is an extra ability given to it to make it on par with other dragons though. Same with the Sand Barioth in the third generation games.

The Meownster Hunter minigame in 4U has its own hierarchy of Blue (melee), Yellow (ranged) and Red (bomb) attacks, which you have to pit against each other in order to be any effective when fighting monsters. Thankfully there's an in-game chart that shows which color trumps whichnote Blue trumps Yellow, Yellow trumps Red, and Red trumps Blue.

Elite Tweak: Mixing and matching armors and gems can result in some potent skill combinations. Add to this that there are several weapons available, each with different playing styles and there are plenty of skills for each weapon.

Equipment Upgrade: Weapon upgrades become available once you've unlocked the relevant tier and own at least one required material.

Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: In a meta sense. There are a lot of saurian monsters in this world, and the full-blown dragons take a lot of anatomical cues from dinosaurs as well. This generally isn't commented on in-universe, however, since, well, everyone's used to seeing them.

Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Not a single human character in the game besides you seems to have an actual name. And even in your case, everyone usually just calls you "Hunter" anyway. A few examples of civilization-dwelling characters that do have names include the two Shakalakas, Cha-Cha and Kayamba. This is even lampshaded in 4U by The Man:

The Man:"The Caravaneer rarely addresses people by their first names. As a result, I fear I have forgotten yours...what was it again?"

Though not acknowledged in-game, other sources show 3U's Guild Sweetheart is named Aisha and 4U's Guildmarm is named Sophia.

Bombs deal a set amount of damage regardless of the monster's defense, which is particularly useful against species whose carapaces seem like they're made of granite.

Taken Up to Eleven with the Brachydios, a Brute Wyvern whose main feature is an explosive slime that coats its fists. Anything hit by this will explode after a few seconds and the weapons forged from it provide a similar effect for the Hunter.

Teostra and Lunastra, a pair of elder dragons that use the Fire element exclusively, can release volatile powders into their surroundings which they could proceed to detonate at will. In 4 Ultimate, weapons made of Teostra parts even have the Blastblight status effect, which is similar to Brachydios' slime.

The Gunlance, Switch Axe and Charge Blade all have explosion-based attacks as their special moves.

Everything's Better with Monkeys: So far: the oafish Congalala (with younger congas and the badder Emerald version), the proud Blangonga (with its mob of blangos and its desert-based Copper cousin), the terrifying Rajang (and its numerous Dragon Ball themed variants), the literal spidermonkey Gogomoa (mothering its kokomoa whilst fighting), the lemur-like Kechawacha, and last but not least, the double team of Ray and Lolo Gougarfs.

Played straight in that smaller monsters will attack you even if there is a larger, more threatening monster in the area. For example, Agnaktor will feed on Rhenoplos to regain stamina. Instead of fleeing the area or ganging up on the Agnaktor, they will keep attacking you with their charge attack.

Subverted in some instances. It's possible for a group of Jaggi to gang up on a sleeping Arzuros and to attack it multiple times to wake it up. Also, some monsters will attack each other in some occasions, though they will focus the hunter most of the time.

Also mitigated to some extent in newer versions. Jaggi and the like will now quickly clear out to a corner of the zone to watch hunters and large creatures fight rather then suicidally charging into the cross fire. Herbivores, however, will still charge you.

Played straight in the case of Rusted and Worn weapons, which can be randomly acquired by mining Rustshards or Ancient Shards. Initially they appear to be weapons in a state of much disuse and decay, but reforging them via the use of Elder Dragon materials can turn them into some of the strongest elemental weapons in the game.

Played with regarding the random weapon drops from Expeditions and Guild Quests in 4U. These specialized weapons are unusable at first and need to be cleaned up by the Troverian Abolisher in Harth, but tend to have randomized stats ranging from laughably weak to incredibly powerful. Unlike the regular crafted weapons, however, Expedition weapons can be strengthened using Armor Spheres, which can result in certain weapons found early on becoming Disc One Nukes.

Fake Longevity: Thanks to the Randomly Drops mechanic and a player may feel the need to "pause" their progress in order to make a good set of gear, this leads to a lot of repeated boss battles.

Fantastic Science: The entire game practically runs on this trope as more and more new monsters are constantly being researched by human and Wyvernian biologists, with their produce and body parts appropriated for domestic, military and technological use. Not to mention the series is inspired partly by National Geographic articles on wildlife, among other things.

Fartillery: Congas and the Congalala are able to release a cloud of noxious fumes from their behinds, and this is actually one of the most insidious attacks in the game, as when you are "soiled," you cannot eat or drink any healing items. Returns in 3 Ultimate with Volvidon and Steel Uragaan, but both of them are closer to gassing than outright farting.

Final Boss: Despite being an Endless Game as mentioned above, every entry in the series has some sort of final monster whose first defeat generally triggers the credits to roll.

In Monster Hunter Freedom 2, this was Akantor, in Freedom Unite, his older cousin Ukanlos took that spot (beating Akantor in the village quests still shows the ending sequence).

Ceadeus fills this role in Tri, while a different Elder Dragon takes over for him in online: Alatreon, who's basically every Elder Dragon from MHFU combined into one. Portable 3rd has the Amatsumagatsuchi, with a moveset similar to Lagiacrus due to the underwater hunt feature being absent. 3 Ultimate demotes Ceadeus to a Disc One Final Dungeon, while Ivory Lagiacrus serves as the story's final boss and whose defeat rolls the credits in Single Player, and Alatreon becomes the True Final Boss available only after every single offline quest is done. The multiplayer mode (also playable offline) has Dire Miralis.

In 4 Ultimate, successfully killing the Shagaru Magala rolls a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. The actual staff roll appears when you and the Ace Hunters manage to repel the Rusted Kushala Daora terrorizing Dundorma City.

Fission Mailed: In 4 Ultimate there is a mission where you have to capture a Rathian; but towards the end a Seregios shows up and chases away the Rathian and that in turn leads to a Quest Failed message. You are then given a new mission to hunt the Seregios instead.

Fixed Damage Attack: The Crag S and Clust S bullets for bowguns do exactly this. Gunlance shells and Wyvern's fire also count. And while not strictly an attack per se, all bombs play this trope as well. Impact-type Phials for Charge Blades use this oddly, since it adds fixed damage to your attack.

Floating Continent: Subverted with the village of Cathar in 4, and its corresponding hunting grounds, the Heaven's Mount; they don't actually defy gravity per se, but are instead sections of crumbling mountain precariously supported by tough mineral veins, hard bedrock and tree roots.

Follow the Leader: After the series' breakout title Freedom Unite, several companies have attempted to emulate Monster Hunter's mechanics or even directly compete against the game, with varying results. The more well-known examples are God Eater Burst, Toukiden and Soul Sacrifice.

Foregone Victory: When you go to repel the Gore Magala in Everwood in 4, you can't actually fail. Since this is treated as an Expedition, you have no time or defeat limits. Even though you're escorting the Ace Hunters, they can't die, as attacks will simply go right through them. All you really have to do is do enough damage to Gore Magala to repel it each time it appears.

Foreshadowing: 4 Ultimate, being a more plot-oriented game, has loads of these.

In order to fully resist the Frenzy Virus, players must attack monsters relentlessly until the effect wears off, earning them an increase in attack power and temporary immunity to said virus. This is the same reasoning behind Apex monsters: they successfully fought off the virus themselves, and have become Lightning Bruisers as a result.

Two of the maps have this as Meaningful Background Events. Certain sections of the Primal Forest are wreathed in the skeleton of a massive snakelike creature, who appears to have lived on the nearby mountain. Later on, the Heaven's Mount area has rocks falling all over the place, rumored to be from the burrowing of a giant creature. The final clue is the Guildmaster's story of a great serpent somewhere in the world, which set him off on his business as a Caravan owner in search of the legend. You eventually confront said legend in the form of the massive Elder Dragon Dalamadur, a mile-long giant serpent who tunnels through rocks and lives at the top of a mountain.

As you complete G-Rank quests, you are given story tidbits about shacks of gunpowder being raided and stolen, a tar-like substance found in the crime scenes, and the disappearance of the first Dragonator all of which lead up to the revelation of Gogzmazios, a huge tar dragon with a powerful heat ray, and having the first Dragonator on its back which explains all of those events.

For Science!: Guildmarm in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is more than happy to seize any opportunity to gather more data on monsters. That includes asking you to show her your bite marks, for science of course.

Playing this game multiplayer would be much more difficult if this wasn't the case. When everyone's swinging weapons the sizes of small cars around one area, this is a necessity. Also demonstrated in the fact that bombs the size of people do little more than inconveniently send a player flying (2 Large Barrel Bombs+ may be fatal though). And fortunately, this trope does not apply for the monsters.

Most gunners do not use recovery ammo because if you hit the monster, you'll heal it.

In a meta sense, some Challenge Gamers choose to initiate hunts without any armor on.

The Chakra Armor set is a weaponized version of Diamonds in the Buff, being a full set of jewelry; your character is still shown in their undies if you choose to equip this set. It also doesn't have any Armor Skills to go with it, though it does come with an absurd number of gem slots.

Played with in 4/4U. From a gameplay standpoint, you get to defend Val Habar from a Dah'ren Mohran while wearing no equipment whatsoever. From a story standpoint, everyone just knows you as "the Hunter who fought off the Dah'ren Mohran in only his/her underwear" (even if they don't know it's actually you).

4/4U has a quest called "Naked and Afraid" where hunters are forced to hunt two Deviljhos with no armor on.

In 3 Ultimate, nothing is stopping you from leaving Moga Village and joining the online mode right from the start of the game. It is very much possible to earn yourself G-rank status and craft G-rank armor and weapons. If you haven't done anything in Moga Village, everyone there will still treat you as a hunter in training. This is especially bad if you are facing the single player Lagiacrus for the first time. Even if you are wearing a full Lagia armor, the game will still treat it as a Hopeless Boss Fight.

Also in 3 Ultimate, at max Chum-Chum level, Cha-Cha and Kayamba have reached optimum friendship will not bicker amongst themselves while you're out hunting with them anymore. Despite this, they'll continue to smack-talk about each other when you talk to them in Moga Village or Tanzia Port, as if they're still bitter rivals.

The monster introductory cutscenes in 4/4U play with this. Some of them, like when the Daimyo Hermitaur and Tigrex send the hunter flying with a direct hit, play it straight as the character otherwise receives no damage. Others subvert it; the cutscenes for the Basarios and Great Jaggi have the hunter performing a successful mount on said monsters, whereupon the game transitions to the actual mounting "minigame", and a couple others lead straight into Press X to Not Take Damage moments, such as the Rajang preparing to toss a chunk of rock at you as soon as the cutscene ends.

Some story characters are hunters that retired due to serious hunting-related injuries, such as the Retired Hunter in Unite, the Village Chief in 3 Ultimate and the Master of Defense in 4 Ultimate. Despite this, you can get the daylights beaten out of you hundreds of times through One Hit Kills from Elder Dragons and the worst that will happen is that you lose money from failing quests.

The monster introductory scenes in 4/4U are shown in the first story-related quest involving the monster in question, but not in their Gathering Hall/multiplayer equivalent, even if you end up doing the latter first. If you start doing the quests as soon as they're available, it's entirely possible to, for example, farm the Great Jaggi via its Gathering Hall quest, make a full Jaggi armor set, then "get introduced" to the Great Jaggi in story mode while wearing it.

Game-Breaking Bug: An infamous one plagues Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, both on Wii U and 3DS. When you create a character, the game will determine which charms you can find by choosing between different charm tables. The problem is, some charm tables are "cursed": instead of offering a variety of about 20000 charms, those tables only offer 200 to 800 different charms (and not the good ones: none of the cursed tables offer any charms with 3 gem slots). This doesn't stop here: some of these cursed charm tables prevent you from finding rustshards, which mean you won't be able to find or craft some weapons and armors at all. You can find more info on this on the official forums (including ways to determine which table you got).note The tables first came about with Tri, which actually only had one table that everyone shared. And then Portable 3rd had multiple, but they were chosen upon starting the game up and not on character creation, so they cycled every time you stared a new session.

Gateless Ghetto: The introduction cutscene in 4/4U shows Val Habar to be quite a big town. All you get to visit of it is a small street that just happens to hold everything you need and to be right next to the Gathering Hall.

Your Felyne will do this if you start cowering in fear of a monster, get put to sleep, dizzied, frozen or otherwise incapacitated. Considering that any time your movement gets hindered, there's a fair chance whatever wyvern you're fighting right now is going to use that opportunity to turn you into toast, this is a very useful feature.

Cha-Cha does the same thing in Tri. He even has dialog boxes that have some variation of the phrase. Kayamba does the same in 3 Ultimate.

Players can do this to each other. The weak kick attack is designed for this, although a strike from one of your weapons works all the same.

Ceadeus in Tri. A gigantic serpent-whale-dragon thing that was the real cause behind the Moga earthquakes and isn't introduced or even confirmed to exist until the final tier of quests, unlike Lagiacrus. Though if it's any consolation, the village elder eventually tells you that he had a suspicion all along that Ceadeus was the cause, because he had faced it himself when he was younger.

Quite a few monsters in the series have little or no background information — particularly those introduced in the Updated Rereleases and Frontier's patches — because what little storyline there is is usually not modified to account for them. Ceadeus is only exceptional because he's a storyline boss in a main game.

Gimmick: From 4U, the Seregios weapons have unique gimmicks to them that set them apart from other weapons of their kind.

For Blademasters, the weapons have a maximized Sharpness rating that can't be improved with Sharpness +1, but in exchange, dodging five times with your weapon drawn automatically restores five points of Sharpness, mitigating the need to sharpen your own weapon with Whetstones.

For Bowgun wielders, dodging with your weapon drawn automatically reloads a single bullet of the selected ammunition, mitigating the need for manual reloading.

For Bow wielders, applying C. Range Coating automatically gives you the same damage boost as a Power Coating.

The Chaos Gore Magala weapons are the only set of weapons in the game to both have negative affinity and positive affinity, which means it has the chance to do both feeble hits and a separate chance to do critical hits. Overcoming the Frenzy Virus will cause the weapons' negative affinity to disappear and be added to the positive affinity for the duration of the buff.

Global Currency Exception: Despite the existence and ubiquity of Zenny, there are several other means of trade and commerce in the Monster Hunter world:

Points trading, which varies from game to game; e.g. Pokke Points in Unite, Resources in Tri / 3U and Caravan Points in 4. Points can be received by doing things like obtaining rare Account Items, Resource Gathering (in Tri) or going on Expeditions (4), and is the key to purchasing some of the rarer goods like exotic consumables, reagents and utility upgrades.

In 3U, the Argosy Captain offers to trade rare consumables, crafting items, tools for the Fishing Fleet, home decor, Shakalaka dance manuals and other miscellany if you provide him with Exotic Goods, which are obtainable at gathering spots and via hunting monsters in the Moga Woods. Some rare items can only be procured in this manner.

In 4U, the Wycoon's extensive network of merchants allows you to trade for monster parts that cannot be found in your part of the world, by trading in parts of monsters you hunt in return. This makes it possible for the player to craft equipment made of monster parts from past games (e.g. Lao-Shan Lung and Shen Gaoren, both of which appeared in the 1st and 2nd gen games respectively, but are absent in 4U), which would otherwise be unobtainable.

In-universe, Guildmarm in 4U wants to record every monster in her notebook and send it in so it can become an official guide to monsters of sorts. However, by the time she wants to send it in, the representative on the other end repeatedly sends it back on the basis of "not enough information", which leads her to believe that she's missing data on a bunch of monster subspecies. Naturally, you get to hunt them for her. She seems to not understand the fact that her entire notebook consisting completely of doodles might be part of the problem...

Green Hill Zone: The Forests and Hills that appear the 1st and 2nd generation games. In the 3rd generation, the Deserted Island (Moga Woods) takes this role instead. In the 4th generation, the Ancestral Steppe is this.

Grievous Harm with a Body: Since your weapons are made of monster parts, you may find yourself wacking stuff with a Rathalos or a Plesioth head for a hammer.

The Grim Reaper: The Death Stench armor set has you looking like a heavily-armored version. There's also its armor pieces' descriptions. You can even forge an accompanying scythe as well, even one that bisects the more miniscule creatures in the game with one stroke.

Guest Star Party Member: During the fight against the Rusted Kushala Daora in 4U, you get the Ace Hunters as NPC allies, with the Ace Commander manning the Track Cannon, the Ace Lancer manning ballistas, the Ace Gunner distracting the monster with Heavy Bowgun fire, and the Ace Cadet providing periodic healing with an infinite supply of Lifepowders.

Guide Dang It: Focusing on improving one weapon type at the expense of others can make material gathering a nightmare, as certain materials can only be gathered if a certain part of a monster is destroyed, and many of these parts can only be destroyed by a very specific weapon type. This leads to a game of trial and error as you try to figure out which weapon breaks which part of which monster.

It breaks down to two questions: does it require slashing or bashing damage, and what weapon of that type can I hit it with?

There's also trying to figure out what element each monster is weakest to, as well as what parts of it can be broken at all. Some monsters have parts that break in two stages, and you're probably not going to bother targeting a body part that's been broken already if you don't know that it can break again.

The issue of weaknesses is reduced a little once you know that armor made from a monster tends to share the weaknesses of that monster, so as soon as you have one part of them you can get a good read from the armory. Physical weaknesses tend to be a bit obvious like hitting the face and you'll know them when your attack has a brief animation lag to simulate your weapon digging deeper.. that said, both of these are in themselves Guide Dang It.

Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Played straight with the Ace Hunters in 4. The Ace Commander, Ace Lancer, and Ace Cadet are all male and Blademasters, while the Ace Gunner is female and a Gunner. Averted with the player characters, where gender is cosmetic and has no bearing on ability or preference in weapons use.

In the Updated Rereleases of the games, several of the higher ranked missions are about hunting Palette Swap versions of previous monsters. These revamped opponents are far more aggressive, their attacks may be of a different element from the originals and, at the start, you're placed randomly in a part of the battlefield, far from the resting area, and the supplies to help you won't arrive until much later, when there's little time left to hunt the monsters.

In addition to new monsters and subspecies of old monsters (described above), the old monsters themselves return in the higher ranked quests as well with buffed HP and attack power. Even the 'Dromes and Great Jaggi can cause trouble at first, and monsters like Khezu and Yian Garuga (1st and 2nd Gen), Gigginox and Lagiacrus (3rd gen) and Zamtrios and Tetsucabra (4th gen) become nightmares because of this.

Healing Spring: The hot spring in Yukumo Village in Portable 3rd, although it acts more as a "buffing" spring, as it raises your HP and Stamina prior to a quest, as opposed to Power-Up Food. This comes full circle in 4U, where the relaxing power of the Yukumo hot springs is condensed into the Portable Steam Bomb, a lasting smoke bomb that cures any negative statues on contact and even resets the Frenzy Virus' contamination gauge.

Heart Container: Nutrients slightly increase the Life Meter during a quest (and its effects are reverted after the quest is over or the player quits or loses). It's possible to upgrade the Nutrients into Mega Nutrients (which grant a greater meter increase) and then Max Potion (which instantly increases the meter to the fullest extent possible, while also healing you to that maximum). Ancient Potions work like Max Potions, but also maximize the stamina bar as a bonus.

Guildmarm: "When you accept a quest, do you imagine colored tickets floating over your head? Because I do."

Helping Would Be Killstealing: Played with. The monetary reward for a quest is divided up amongst all participants. A quest that rewards 6000 zenny will give 1500 zenny per player in a four-person partynote However, players with the Crazy Lucky Cat skill will get a 75% bonus., while doing the quest solo will reward you all 6000. On the surface, it seems like the best way to make money is to tackle quests by yourself. However, quests go by much faster with a party and don't diminish the item rewards (which can be sold for cash anyway), so repeating the same quest with a party is still a viable option if you're low on funds.

Herbivores Are Friendly: Zig Zagged. Some herbivores, like the Aptonoth, Gargwa, and Slagtoth, are friendly and will only attack you if you attack them first. Other herbivores are less so, like the Bullfango and Rhenoplos which will both charge the player on sight. And then there's Monoblos and Diablos, which only eat cacti and yet manage to be two of the most terrifying monsters in the series.

Heroic RROD: The Charge Blade's Sword and Shield Mode is made to gather Phial energy by attacking, which increases a charge that boosts the Shield's blocking ability. However, if you attack too much, the Shield becomes Overcharged, which gives it nigh-impenetrable defense, but makes your attacks always bounce, regardless of Sharpness.

In Unite, the Pokke Guild Hall Manager planned on either fleeing for her life or staying or letting all of her subordinates evacuate because of Ukanlos. Everyone decided to stay and help the village, though no one needed much help thanks to the player hunter.

The Guild Sweetheart from Tri puts her own job on the line by lying to the Guild about the evacuation of Moga Village, allowing the player to take on Ceadeus alone.

The Master of Defense in 4 Ultimate does this for a then-young Ace Commander by saving his life from a rogue Kushala Daora during a Rathian hunt, at the cost of a Career-Ending Injury.

Many of the first and second generation monsters have a hitbox that is way larger than their bodies. Who could forget Khezu's tail hitting you even when it's several meters high, or Rathalos trampling you when you're in the gap between its feet? The worst offender is probably Plesioth and his infamous hipcheck, which can (and will) hit you even if his body doesn't come in contact with yours. Thankfully, Tri mostly fixed this (emphasis on mostly. Almost all monster hit boxes while underwater are ridiculous). Further remedied in Monster Hunter 4 - much to the delight of bowgunners and archers.

Monster Hunter 4 does have one glaring example in the form of Savage Deviljho's pinning attack. Touching any part of Deviljho's body as it performs the move will result in a pin, including the lightest brush from the tip of its tail. This also happens to be one of its favorite moves. Hope you packed extra Dung Bombs.

Again from Monster Hunter 4 there is Brachydios whose hitbox on the head has been greatly increased when compared to past games. This causes problems for those who want to break its fore-limbs since the attacks are more than likely to hit the head instead.

The Gunlance's Wyvern Fire is an odd example. Normally, Wyvern Fire is treated as four separate projectiles arranged in a straight line from the weapon's barrel, meaning that a Gunlancer must be reasonably close to a monster for all four shots to connect; the further out you are, the less damage it deals. However, what isn't widely known is that the ability's hitbox also encompasses the area immediately above the Hunter's head as well as the Gunlance's handle, and any monster coming in contact with either of these two sections during the blast will register all 4 hits. This makes it perfectly possible to achieve weapons-grade Offhand Backhands with a Gunlance, as demonstrated here.

When the Uragaan swings its tail, it sends out lumps of unstable rock that explode when hit or the Uragaan uses its chin slam attack. The Uragaan is not immune to the damage from these explosions, so it is entirely possible for it to kill itself with its own explosives.

The Qurupeco can call other monsters to its aid, and it is not immune to their attacks. The monsters will usually not attack the Qurupeco, but they will sometimes catch it in their attacks accidentally, and may end up killing it themselves.

Frenzied monsters in 4U can infect hunters with the Frenzy Virus, weakening their constitution and health regeneration if the infection completes its incubation period. However, if a hunter manages to stay on the offensive long enough, the Frenzy infection will be dispelled and grant a momentary increase in strength, allowing him or her to fight back more effectively.

In Freedom 2 and Unite, there is a 1-star Village Quest named "A Sinking Feeling" wherein the task is to collect 3 Popo Tongues from the eponymous creatures at the top of Snowy Mountain, during nighttime. Once you get to the upper mountain ledges, however, a Tigrex shows up without warning. Good luck trying to even hurt it with the equipment available at that level, especially since the quest only lasts 20 minutes. Unlike the Lagiacrus example below, however, it doesn't have infinite HP and can be killed.

In Tri and 3 Ultimate, the Lagiacrus is introduced in the first tier's quests, and is a 5th tier monster. You can't gain access to better equipment, and your weapons will be doing minimum damage or just bounce off. When he appears, the guild sweetheart immediately tells you to run away just in case the futility of fighting it wasn't obvious. You can fight it anyway if you want.You can actually get some break rewards earlier than expected by damaging it, although it remains unbeatable.

Played with in 4U. Once you get the Arluq ship from the Troverians and cross the ocean, the Gore Magala shows up in the midst of a typhoon and attacks the ship. You end up having to fight it on the Arluq's deck, which is only as big as the Sandship's. Thankfully there are various weapons scattered about for your usage, and you can even jump off the ship in order to get to the supply hold for more items. Plus, unlike the above examples, your only goal is to deal enough damage to repel the creature.

Horse of a Different Color: Portable 3rd introduces the Gargwa, Bird Wyverns that look like oversized ostriches which not only serve as prey for some of the larger monsters out there, but are also used by the people of Yukumo as livestock and beasts of burden.

Hot-Blooded: Several characters across the series, including the Training Instructor from Freedom 2/Unite, the Shakalakas and Moga Fishermen from Tri, and the Ace Cadet from 4U, are this. Also in 4U, the more aggressive Palico classes are a combination of this and Leeroy Jenkins including Whitescruff, the cowardly Felyne from Cheeko Sands.

Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Inverted in the case of the Seltas and Seltas Queen. Played straight with The Man and Little Miss Forge.

Human Popsicle: Similar to the Mud status effect, some monsters can leave hunters encased in Snow, which slows down their movement and prevents them from attacking or using items. Later games may also add the Iceblight status on top of this, which can quickly drain Stamina. Monsters that can inflict this status include the Giadrome, Blangonga, Barioth and Kushala Daora, though the latter can only inflict it when fought in snowy areas.

Hurricane of Puns: Almost all of the lines of dialogue in Tri are puns or other bad jokes. Moga Village is where the puns reach hurricane levels; between Cha-Cha, the Felynes, the quest descriptions, and one villager who lives for awful puns.

Hyperactive Metabolism: Played straight by both monsters and hunters alike. It's entirely possible for monsters to eat herbivores ranging from a third to half their size in a matter of seconds, and then become starved after another couple of minutes. Hunters can also wolf down as many arm-length steaks as they want in no time at all. Justified to some extent with the Deviljho, who need to eat constantly to maintain their high body heat. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, eating only restores stamina, not health.

I Know Madden Kombat: The Hermitaur Helm and Cap are respectively a football helmet and a hockey mask.

Impending Clash Shot: The covers always feature a Hunter using a Greatsword about to clash with whatever the flagship monster of that game is, background is usually inconsequential (MH:Freedom for one uses a plain white frame and a small circular background).

The Gunlance, a lance fitted with explosive shells that can be detonated on command.

The Switch Axe is a mechanical axe that turns into a sword. Like the gunlance, it also shoots explosions.

The Charge Blade takes this Up to Eleven, as it unsheathes as a sword and shield, but the shield can be combine' with the sword◊ to create a massive double-edged axe head. Rather than exploding from the weapon itself, a hunter can utilize special attacks which consume collected charge and leave sticky, detonating charges on the monster similar to a bowgun's Crag shots.

The Insect Glaive is a weapon that allows you to control a small insect while bashing monsters with a double ended staff. You can shoot a bullet at monsters to have the insect home in and absorb essences from monsters to power you up.

The Hunting Horn plays notes as it strikes, and with the right sequence of notes, you can cut the fighting and start performing, giving you and your partners buffs that can be REALLY useful, such as not running out of stamina or being immune to monster roars.

While they may have been crafted rather than picked up from the environment, some weapons' designs have you doubting them. Example: A plunger shaped lance (no, you hold the proper plunger handle - you stab with the plunger head), two stick puppets, and fuzzy maracas. Justified in that some have such terrible stats that they border on being a Joke Item.

You know that giant cutlery set your hunter held while waiting for their meal in Unite? It's a craftable Dual Sword set called the Glutton's Tools, complete with two upgrade paths. It can be unlocked for crafting by having your Felyne Chefs handing you a regular meal pass, which in turn unlocks the Felyne Ragdoll and Melynx Ragdoll, both of which are bowguns.

The Pink Maracas mentioned earlier upgrade into Jungle Maracas (that look more like pompoms), which, at the endgame upgrade into Evergreen, considered one of the best dual swords of the game, and require materials obtained slightly earlier than its competition.

Tri brings in the Sharq Attaq lance... which is basically a stuffed sharq that you swing around and beat things to death with, and it comes with a no swimming sign that acts as your shield. It's actually pretty decent.

There's also the Pop Corn, which is a giant corn-on-the-cob. You wield it like a lance. It comes with a straw hat to be used as a shield. And most importantly, when you stab things with it, they explode.

From Portable 3rd: Hunter Dumplings. They're dual blades that are... dumplings. On sticks. Specifically, three (really big) dumplings per stick. The weapon tree branches from there into White or Purple Dumplings. The Purple ones can cause the Poison status effect.

Also, the Scabbardfish Blade - a longsword that is, quite literally, a fish on a stick. It does additional Water damage.

The Wyvern's Perch, a greatsword that looks like someone cut down a rather thick tree with mushrooms on it and mounted a hilt on one end.

Also, the Numbingbird. It's a giant flower that has the hitting power of a hammer and can paralyze monsters to boot.

The Type 63 Warmonica (Nibelsnarf Hunting Horn) is Exactly What It Says on the Tin - an oversized harmonica. It's one of the few weapons in the game to get a Water element without needing the Awaken skill, and gets access to Health Recovery (L) at the end of its upgrade path which heavily (though not completely) mitigates the need for Potions.

In games where Speartuna are available, the Frozen Speartuna (which is also exactly what it sounds like- see Shamu Fu) and the Swordfish Bow (made of an entire fish skeleton). Worth noting is that they are actually fairly decent weapons, being available quite early in the game, and in the case of the Frozen Speartuna having a low attack rating but an abnormally high ice elemental power.

For Light Bowgunners in 4, one of the most practical weapons is literally a giant syringe.

Palicoes in 4/4U can be given standard axes and swords, but they also get funky options such as a monster's paw attached to a stick, a surfboard, and a large syringe that goes well with the aforementioned bowgun...

Infinity–1 Sword: The basic Ore-made weapons fall into this category, possessing decent damage against all monster types and several gem sockets to help customize your Armor Skills with. They also have the distinction of being quite easy to make and upgrade, since almost all the items needed to smith said weapons can be found via mining. That said, they will end up replaced with stronger weapons later on, but Genre Savvy players will find themselves hanging on to them well into G-Rank.

The game manages to avoid having overpowered weapons for the most part, although certain weapons (like the Elder Dragon weapons lineup, especially the Fatalis models) tend to fall into this category.

Monster Hunter 4 introduces Relic Weapons, randomly generated weapons which can be obtained through guild quests and expeditions. The highest tier of relic weapons can surpass even the best forged and honed weapons in the game... if you're lucky enough to unearth one.

Innocent Innuendo: The Ace Lancer in 4U has a doozy of one while during the Gunlance tutorial.

Instant Sedation: Tranquilizer Bombs, or Tranq Bombs. Damage a monster until it starts showing signs that it's almost dead (usually limping), catch it in a trap and chuck Tranq Bombs at it and you'll capture it by putting it to sleep. Bigger monsters will take more Tranq Bombs before they'll fall asleep, but you can also use Tranq Throwing Knives or make Tranq bullets for use with a bowgun.

Instant-Win Condition: In the 20-60 seconds after you finish a quest, but before you collect your reward and head home, you won't take damage from anything, even though any remaining creatures can attack you, interrupting if you're busy carving something.

Instrument of Murder/Magic Music: Hunting Horns. Their main gimmick is their wide array of buff songs to aid the party, though they're also almost as good as hammers at beating things senseless.

It is easy to tell if a Gypceros is Playing Possum. The quest is not considered complete, you do not get Expedition Points in 4/4U Expeditions, or in two-monster hunts, you will not be shown a "One monster left." message. Aside from those messages, you can also try to walk through its "corpse", because slain monsters do not have any collision detection.

Before setting sail on the Arluq's maiden voyage, you're told to gear up because anything could happen while you're on board. Sure enough, a Gore Magala attacks the Arluq in mid-voyage, forcing you to repel it in an emergency battle. You're never given this same warning any other time that the Caravan travels.

In 4/4U the fact that Shagaru Magala is the adult Gore Magala is spoiled because, to upgrade Gore Magala weapons after a certain point, you need parts from Shagaru Magala.

Interspecies Romance: Well, one-sided romance, anyway. Guildmarm in 4/4U has a crush on a Brachydios, and even writes up an Urgent just so you can find it and tell it about her feelings (which you don't, you just hunt it). Make of that what you will.

Item Crafting: The only way to get better weapons, armor, and other items.

Item Farming: This is key to the Monster Hunter games, if you want to get items to forge better armour and weapons, otherwise you won't be able to make much progress.

The "Pro Hunter" inside the Guild Hall in Freedom 2/Unite loves to insult your equipment choices and belittle you at every turn. After defeating the Ukanlos at the end of Unite, your character even invites her to join up as a team, which she responds to by saying that you will therefore be her glorious sidekick if it were to happen.

The Arena Bambina from 4 Ultimate is either extremely condescending toward you, or really sarcastic. She even doubts if you really were the one who managed to kill the Dalamadur after completing its Urgent Quest for the first time.

If weak enough, it is theoretically possible to die from a monster collapsing on top of you after you catch it. Made impossible in most normal quests, since after the main quest conditions are fulfilled, the player is invulnerable to any monster attack. In quests with multiple monsters, or quests with monsters that appear but do not need killing, monsters like Congalala that have post-death attacks can potentially harm you. Exceptions to this rule include quests which don't end the instant you capture the monster, but a few seconds later. In these cases you can effectively die if the monster you just caught happens to fall on top of your hunter. Fortunately, this only applies to first-gen monsters (Rathalos, Diablos, etc.) in older games.

Some of the monsters' introductory cutscenes in 4U are this. Hope you weren't too mesmerized with Gravios to notice it charging a thermal ray in your direction at the end of the cinematic!

Katanas Are Just Better: Several Longsword designs are based on the katana. Subverted, however, in that they are not necessarily stronger than other Longsword types.

Kinda Busy Here: Beginning with the 3rd Gen games, NPCs can occasionally interrupt you mid-fight to deliver an important message or warn you of impending danger, which can be unhelpful if said danger is only a scant few meters away from your face. Thankfully, not only are such sequences few and far in between (with most occurring at the start of a quest), the game also pauses the action during the messages, though this only makes the phenomenon even weirder. The playable demo of 4U was rather notorious for this if a player chooses to turn the "Beginner-Friendly Messages" on.

Lantern Jaw of Justice: Uragaan, while not particularly just, has a very formidable chin. Ukanlos as well, with its mighty shovel jaw.

Lethal Lava Land: The Volcano, with each main game having its own incarnation. 4 brings us a Lethal Lava Town, Harth, although the lava only shows up after you've defeated the Nerscylla.

Level Grinding: Not for character levels as such, but the items: you'd sweat through killing a certain monster sometimes over 20 times only in order to get armor that helps you kill the same monster.

4/4U's Guild Quests have a level attached to them when you receive the Quest, depending on what monsters are involved and what kind of Expedition you received the Quest from. Naturally, Guild Quests of higher levels drop better loot than what you find at lower levels, as well as upgrading the monster in question so that you may some day be able to farm it for G-Rank drops. However, Guild Quests level up by completing them, which means that a Hunter may wind up hunting the same monster over and over again before it actually drops anything of value. Players who are not yet G-Rank have to be particularly careful with farming the same quest; if a Guild Quest gets upgraded to High Rank or G-Rank, the HR requirement will increase, so even if you "own" the quest, you won't be able to tackle it anymore until you match the target HR, with the only alternative being to use a new quest.

Frontier allows players to unlock brand new moves for all weapons...but only if they manage to grind their Hunter Rank past 500. At this point, you are given a "Skill Rank" for each weapon type, which will only go up the more you use them in quests. At SR1 you will receive a few new moves; reaching SR100 will unlock the rest. In fact, grinding both your HR and SR to maximum is the only way to gain access to the Battle Tonfas.

Felyne Comrades/Palicos play this trope straight, gaining levels the more you take them with you on quests. The "grinding" aspect is subverted since you won't notice it much—until you decide to switch Palicos and discover that your new ones get knocked out much more quickly. Cha-Cha and Kayamba from 3U also have experience levels, but the impact of grinding isn't as strong as the Palicos' since you only have the two of them to level.

The Barioth is one of the fastest wyverns... and hits like a giant flying saber-toothed tiger dragon. The same basically applies to the Nargacuga and Tigrex "families", all of which enjoy the collective fan-classification of Pseudo-Wyverns.

One of the more famous examples is Rajang, who gets bonus points for actually being able to shoot lightning. From its mouth.

Zinogre is a more literal example, being a giant lupine monster capable of summoning lightning storms at will. It can even gather Thunderbugs to supercharge itself, which will imbue its attacks with lightning in addition to making it faster and stronger...and that's not even getting to its actual Rage Mode. Thankfully players can actually delay him from fully charging as long as they keep up the offense, but should they fail to do so...

4 Ultimate's Najarala is a gigantic 40 meter rattlesnake-cobra hybrid. Think it would be painfully slow for its size? Think again; it's roughly as fast, if not faster than, Agnaktor and can easily outmaneuver unwitting hunters by slithering around the battlefield like a viper, setting them up for a nasty constriction attack or coiling up to prepare for a blindingly quick lunging bite.

Lost Woods: The Great Forest in Monster Hunter 2, Misty Peaks in 3, and the Everwood in 4.

Low Fantasy: Very little outright magic. Instead there's a huge amount of fantastic creatures that are used as raw materials. A number of Elder Dragons such as Fatalis and Dire Miralis, however, appear to be preternatural in nature and skirting on High Fantasy.

Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me: The Sword & Shield, Lance, Gunlance and Charge Blade classes all have shields, and the Great Sword class allows you to use your sword as a shield. Shielding blocks most attacks provided you have the stamina needed to shield them successfully, including physical strikes, breath projectiles, and, strangely enough, stun flashes and roars.

MacGyvering: The local smith always seems to be able to upgrade your equipment in seconds, using materials ranging from iron ore, to monster bones, to monster kidney stones, to bugs.

Made of Iron: The hunters are all about this. Ten story falls? Minor landing stun. Run over by a monster that weighs somewhere around ten tons? Get right back up! Hunter deaths are practically unheard of; running out of health just boots you back to camp with a fresh health bar, or back to port to hunt another day if it was the party's thirdtime. Some NPCs aren't so lucky though; see Career-Ending Injury above.

Some of the creatures, such as the Uragaan, have scales or skin that is made of or coated with minerals and ores that greatly increase their durability. There is even a literal invocation with the Steel Uragaan, an Uragaan sub-species, which is covered in steel. These creatures are, incidentally, typically the physically toughest monsters next to creatures such as Elder Dragons.

Kushala Daora is literally the Elder Dragon of Steel. The outer steel skin doesn't grow well and rusts, which is why Kushala Daora regularly shed skin (the choice of meal for Khezu whelps). The rusted skin may not be immediately shed, especially if the dragon is away from the safety of the mountains. These rusted Daoras are irritable, and don't conduct electricity (thus resistant to thunder weapons/shots) but become vulnerable to water.

Make Me Wanna Shout: A lot of large monsters are able to shriek so loudly they stun your character, leaving them helpless for a moment. Roars can come in different potencies, some leaving you stunned for longer than others.

Special mention goes to the Tigrex and it's subspecies, all or which have roars so powerful that it can damage you. Also of note is the Gigginox, which just loves to screech several times in succession.

Mascot Mook: Felynes often show up in promotional material for the game, as well as in various "technical" screens like loading and installation prompts as stick figure-like drawings doing various cute things.

If you have the Wide Area/Range skill, certain flutes, or Lifepowders, you can heal your whole team if they are in the same area; that also includes status ailments, even Blights! The Demon and Armor flutes also allow hunters to have additional stackable stat buffs.

Medieval Stasis: Averted and played straight with different aspects. The overall tech level has noticeably improved as the series has progressed, but it remains a predominantly hunter/gatherer society which depends on the Hunters for both supplies and safety, which is much more evident in the first game. Considering how long Hunters have existed and the fact that there are still Elder Dragons and other monsters roaming free, it's not surprising that the tech level is slow to advance.

Mercy Invincibility: If an attack causes players to roll across the ground, they're immune to damage during the roll and before getting up. 4 Ultimate even allows players to choose when to get up in order to take advantage of this invincibility, although hunters will get up automatically after a set amount of time.

Meido: A certain line of female armors puts you in french maid clothes - fully done.

Invoked as a game mechanic; instead of leveling up your character like many other RPGs, progression depends entirely on crafting and upgrading weapons and armor into increasingly stronger versions of the previous ones. In the case of weapons, it's commonplace to see things like that puny machete you start out with eventually transform into a flaming royal sword that can decimate an Ukanlos with ease through persistent upgrading.

The Barrel Bombs in previous games were quite useful in their own right, except when it's raining. Come Tri, however, explosives technology had advanced enough for Barrel Bombs to be usable underwater.

Mineral MacGuffin: The Artifact, a mysterious golden shard under the Caravaneer's possession that drives 4/4U's plot. The Caravaneer is trying to figure out its origin and the mystery surrounding it, and wants to find willing volunteers to join him in his quest, including the Player Character. As it turns out, it's not actually a mineral, but one of Shagaru Magala's scales.

Mini-Boss: In the third generation of games (Tri, Portable 3rd and Ultimate), there are two groups of large monsters that serve this role: Fanged Beasts (Arzuros, Lagombi and Volvidon) and series veteran Theropod Bird Wyverns (Great Jaggi, Great Wroggi and Great Baggi), the latter having had monsters in previous games. These monsters have a lower HP than other monsters, and each group has a particular battle theme that differs from those of the main areas where they're found. In the multi-monster quests with two or three monsters, one of these miniboss beasts will appear first and, upon hunt or capture, will be followed by a larger monster.

The Royal Ludroth is basically a water-based iguana with a lion mane made out of sea sponge. And its cry sounds like an eagle's.

The Gobul is a mix between a pufferfish, a flatfish, and an anglerfish.

The Barioth is a mostly reptilian wyvern but with the fur, head, and fangs of a sabertooth cat.

The Nargacuga is similar to the Barioth, but replacing the sabertooth cat features with bat and black panther features.

From Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate the Arzuros, Lagombi, and Volvidon are basically bears mixed with a badger, an arctic hare, and an armadillo respectively.

Jhen Mohran: part alligator, part warthog, part mountain. With the swimming style of a sand whale.

Monster Arena: Some monsters in Monster Hunter 3 and its expansions are fought in a special Arena battlefield. There's also an underwater version to fight aquatic monsters.

Mood Whiplash: In 4/4U, after finding out that the Ace Palico went after the Ace Cadet and the Ace Lancer, who are being threatened by the Gore Magala, the ususal background music will be replaced by a quite foreboding tune when you get control of your character back. The controls are returned only so you have the opportunity to prepare for the mission that will let you resolve the situation as well as you can, so getting a bite to eat from the Street Cook before leaving will probably seem like a good idea. Cue the joyful music that usually plays when the Street Cook is preparing your meal.

The "ending credits" of Portable 3rd (played after you defeat Zinogre for the first time) features Nyanjiro, the courier Felyne (who can deliver items to your box though a barrel he rolls around once a mission) leaving Yukumo to roam the world of Monster Hunter and deliver invitations to Yukumo's victory party onto every past home village up to that point note Kokoto (MH1 offline and MH Freedom), Minegarde (MH 1 online), Jumbo (MH Dos offline), Dondurma (MH Dos online), Pokke (MH Freedom 2), Moga (MH Tri offline) and Loc Lac (MH Tri online) before returning to Yukumo in time for the festivities.

In 4 Ultimate, the merchant lady in Val Habar note who happens to be the sister of the Fishmongress from Tri informs you that a group of fishermen from Moga Village came begging her for Sushifish because they couldn't catch any, and that they're afraid the person who sent them out will get mad if they don't bring some back. Said person is heavily implied to be the Player Character from Tri and 3 Ultimate, and the merchant lady has no kind words for the Hunter of Moga Village.

Val Habar Merchant: I hope he gives whoever bully it was that sent him on this wild Jaggi chase a good sock to the face!

The Argosy Captain and his felyne partner Neko (Means "Cat") from 3U both claim to be adept at a swordfighting technique known as "Dirty Fencing", but never elaborate on the details. In 4U however, meeting them on Cheeko Sands and completing their quest will allow you to craft an armor set that provides the skill itself...and it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.note The skill not only makes you stronger each time you faint, but allows your attacks to wear monster Stamina down faster while decreasing your own Stamina consumption. In other words, dirty fighting.

Monster has a laser or fireball type attack? Better hope the monster can't shoot through the obstacle you hid behind so you can sharpen your weapon, reload, or heal. What happens if you try to shoot through the obstacle yourself? Your projectile smacks right into it.

When using Flash Bombs to blind monsters, players need to make sure that the detonation occurs in their direct line of sight for the grenade to be of any effect. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Gypceros and Gobul, who can blind hunters looking away from the flash, up to a certain distance.

Never Say "Die": Subverted. Quest objectives that use the term "hunt" and not "slay" do so because you don't have to actually kill the monster; capturing also counts as victory. When you do objectives involving ancient dragons, the quest objective do use "slay", and that's because you can't capture them. The term is also used to warn that a mission will fail if the point is to capture the monster alive.

Nigh Invulnerable: The Ultimate Mask in 3 Ultimate makes its wearer immune to most attacks and status problems. In fact, the only way that wearers can take damage is when they become enraged, which slowly consumes their health until they faint.

Nightmare Fetishist: Several lines in the games, especially the quest errata, come from people who are very fascinated with the giant killing machines that you fight, and would like to see them up close and in person.

4U has a Guild Hall quest called "A Ghastly Gift." The client wants you to capture a Khezu—because his girlfriend thinks they're cute.

The client for the quest "Arachnophilia" admits to having a thing for spiders, and wants you to hunt a Nerscylla so he can see it.

The Guildmarm outright says she's in love with Brachydios, and tends to act smitten around most monsters. She even mentions being the head of a club of monsterphiles, of which she is the only member.

No Arc in Archery: Averted. The arrows launched from the Bow weapon type fall to the ground as they fly, making long-range shots trickier than medium-range ones.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Averted at the end of Tri. After repelling Ceadeus, your character was supposed to have his/her license revoked by the Guild for defying its direct orders to evacuate Moga Village, but was let off the hook in light of his/her overwhelming support from the villagers, as well as his/her feat of defeating the monster against the Guild's pessimistic predictions. In 3 Ultimate, the Guild even rewards the hunter the access to High Rank quests, and in the Tanzia port they provide him/her access to G Rank after defeating the Goldbeard subspecies.

In Freedom Unite, Tri, Portable 3rd, and 3 Ultimate in particular. The shopkeepers and the blacksmith will charge you for their services, even though you're trying to save their village from certain destruction. Justified in the case of Pokke Village. The Guild warns the village of its imminent destruction due to Ukanlos. The village itself is fully confident that the hunter will save them, and go about their merry ways charging you for services. Played straight by the local guild hall, charging you fully for the Absolute Zero quest contract (the most expensive contract in the game) despite the guild manager telling you she is absolutely terrified and plans to let her subordinates evacuate and handle the guild hall herself.

Plain evil in the case of Zinogre of Yukumo Village. Most of the monster's victims are the village children. No luck with getting any sort of privilege here.

No Item Use for You: Getting hit with the "stench" status prevents you from using items that you use on yourself. Tossing a Deodorant or stepping into another player's active Deodorant cures it. Expect to get stenched frequently when fighting Congala, who farts and throws excretement like no tomorrow.

No OSHA Compliance: It's a wonder there are no reports of Troverians falling to their death in lava after you restore the lava flow in Harth.

Noob Cave: Many of the games have "training quests" specifically designed to get players used to the field mechanics, namely gathering, exploration and combat. These quests usually have the weakest monsters for you to fight, and in some cases might not even have aggressive monsters at all. Training quests for each of the available weapons are also present, pitting players against a handful of weak raptor mooks and the occasional 'Drome in order to give them a feel for each weapon's respective controls.

You may be surprised to find out that Bounce Bombs don't actually bounce. They're portable rockets used to hit monsters that like to crawl on ceilings.

The armor skill Unshakable (Rock Steady) is a combination skill that provides you with low earplugs, low wind resistance, and knockback reduction. The one thing it doesn't protect you from is... actual shaking, i.e. tremor resistance.

Non-Lethal K.O.: You can faint twice in a quest, but on the third time you will be taken out of the quest. You can never, however, actually die. Also, by trapping a monster and throwing tranq bombs at its head you can knock it out and capture it. Some quests require you to do this to win.

Monsters can do this to melee attacks if the weapons used don't have the appropriate Sharpness levels, or if they enter a phase that gives them Super Armor (e.g. Fatalis). A sword swing bouncing off a monster's hide can have fatal consequences.

Apex Monsters in 4U are feared for a very good reason. Not only can they spread the Frenzy Virus, they cannot flinch, elements are straight up useless, traps do jack squat, and certain body parts are even Nigh Invulnerable, bouncing even purple sharpness weapons. The only way to cut them down to size is to use the marvelous Wystones to temporarily bring them back to normal.

Following the end of the main scenario in 4/4U, the Caravan rebands to help the Ace Hunters repair a damaged Dondurma, the location of 2's online lobby.

The Dunes from 4 Ultimate is actually the Old Desert from the very first Monster Hunter, complete with the same music. While the layout of each area has changed drastically to accommodate the more vertical gameplay, the paths and perimeters of the new map◊ are clearly based on the old map◊.

Not Completely Useless: The fourth generation managed to give some useful functions to actions and items that were previously useless.

Insect Husks have long been the pinnacle of joke items in the Monster Hunter series. They can't be used to make anything and they're only worth one Zenny. The fourth generation at least gave the Insect Husk one use: they can be used to Sushifish bait. Not the most exciting feature, but at least it can actually be used for something now.

Mosswine Jerky was a novelty in previous games. While they did speed up your ability to heal, their effect was much shorter than Immunizers, which would last until you fainted. In 4 Ultimate, Mosswine Jerky can be used to cure the Bleeding status effect. As the only other ways to cure it are crouching or eating a steak, neither of which is practical in the middle of battle, Mosswine Jerky ended up becoming very useful for anyone that didn't have the skill that negated bleeding.note Though Mosswine Jerky does have an more practical secondary effect. It fully heals the red portion of your health bar, making it sometimes more effective than a Mega Potion if you're fighting something that can take out a lot of health in a single hit.

The kick was a joke attack in previous games, thanks to its slow speed and minimal damage. The only remarkable thing about the kick was its immunity to being deflected, which was worthless since the kick was so weak. The kick's immunity to being deflected becomes very useful when fighting Konchu and Najarala. The Konchu's shell will deflect your weapons, but they're left vulnerable afterwards, making the kick the easiest way to kill Konchu for most weapons. Najarala's scales will stun people when they explode, but they can be safely destroyed with a single hit, at the cost of deflecting your weapon. Again, this makes the kick the best way to get rid of them for most weapons.

Obstructive Bureaucrat: In 3 and 3 Ultimate, once the Ceadeus is revealed to be the true source of Moga's earthquakes, the Hunter's Guild demands that you abandon Moga Village, claiming that it's "out of your league". Naturally, you and the Guild Sweetheart ignore their orders and take out the Ceadeus.

Oh Crap!: Your character will sometimes flinch when they are spotted by a large monster.

Old Save Bonus: In X, Japanese players can earn a little extra something if the player owns Monster Hunter 4G save data. Players with save data from the spin-off title Monster Hunter Diary DX can also pick up an extra, which is a little nicer than the bonus acquired from 4G.

Also, the first part of the fight with the Lao-Shan Lung features some Latin.

White Fatalis' theme has some Russian mixed in.

The Ceadeus's second battle theme includes a lot of tonal chanting, but it's Indonesian instead of Latin. Ominous Indonesian Chanting — that's a new one.

Dire Miralis' theme in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

One-Man Army: Entirely possible. In fact, it actually gets invoked in Tri and 3 Ultimate. The Ceadeus is specifically stated to require an entire army of G Rank hunters to defeat, but you manage to kill it on your own.

Only the Chosen May Wield: In 4U, upgrading Sunsnug Isle's Palico capacity to 50 Palicoes allows them to build a bridge to an island in the distance. On the island is a sword lodged in the rock, and any attempt to pull it out ends in failure. If you help the Cowardly Palico gather up his courage by defeating Akantor at Ingle Isle, you can pull out the sword to acquire a unique Sword and Shield, the Heroic Blade, which can then be upgraded to the Master's Blade.

Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The Troverian race, introduced in 4 Ultimate. While they're about the same height as a human, they nonetheless have all the stock features of most Dwarven races: stout bodies, huge beards and large nosed faces. To top it all off, they even run a mining, smelting and building operation inside an active volcano.

Our Elves Are Different: The Wyvernian race. They possess reptilian features, have abnormally long lifespans compared to humans, are very fond of technology, and their sizes range from having childlike proportions to being as big as a room.

Rathalos has a move dubbed the "Rathalos World Tour" in which he takes to the air, flies one or two rounds around an area, and finally dives at the Hunter with talons outstretched. This was updated a bit in 4U wherein it will shoot some fireballs while it circles, which makes it a little less tedious, but not by much.

Hunters themselves have item-use animations wherein they either flex their arms triumphantly or rub their belly and burp. It's not very long, but in the middle of a heated fight, you're bound to get attacked during that animation.

Palette Swap: Most monsters have subspecies (eg. Rathalos: red, blue, and silver), with each different colour variant having few, if any, noticeable physical differences between them.

Subspecies often appear to be this, but they always have new moves and almost always have different elements associated with them. For example, the regular Gigginox poisons, while the Baleful Gigginox subspecies uses lightning. The craftable equipment from these monsters are very different in terms of statistics and use as well.

The Dengeki Khezu, Mini Kut-Ku and Phantom Uragaan. Very cute, very tiny...and very lethal.

An event quest in 3 Ultimate has you fight several mini Qurupecos, as well as their crimson brethren.

The Peddling Granny is only little more than half your height, yet is capable of carrying a massive backpack full of items, about twice of your and her size combined.

The Wyvernian Smith in Tri is shorter than the children in the village, but easily carries a blacksmith's hammer bigger than he is on his shoulder.

The male Seltas in 4U is capable of airlifting the much larger Seltas Queen and dragging her around as a battering ram.

The Felyne Comrades/Palicoes and Shakalakas. The former are capable of wielding weapons bigger than they are, while the latter can send even hunters flying in a single attack when enraged. Not to mention the fact they're Made of Iron.

4/4U gives us the tiny "A Lost Civilization" Tetsucabra, who is about the third as large as the average Tetsucabra, and not much taller than the average Hunter. It's also just as powerful as any other High Rank Tetsucabra.

Played with concerning weapons and armor. Each piece of gear is given a "Rarity" rating and a corresponding color code, ranging from Rare-1 to Rare-10, and is generally one of the guidelines to use when comparing stats (e.g. a Rare-5 weapon is usually much stronger than a Rare-3 weapon, though not always). However, this system works more like a strength ranking metric than an actual indicator of how rare the equipment actually is. Played straight, however, in the sense that higher Rarity equipment requires more difficult-to-attain crafting materials, which can be a pain in the rearto farm.

Talismans, a piece of auxiliary equipment introduced in the 3rd Gen games, tend to play this trope straight, to the point where gamers have come up with speedrunning methods for grinding the rarer Charms used to make high-level Talismans.

Priceless Paperweight: This can get dowplayed in the 4/4U post-game. Once the Caravaneer gives you the Article as a present, the game will treat it like any other Shagaru Magala Pure Scale. If you want to make yourself Shagaru Magala gear, any piece needing at least one Pure Scale may end up being made with the one that used to be the Article.

Prongs of Poseidon: A few Lances in the game. Bonus points because they tend to be water-elemental too.

The series has Purple as the highest accessible level of melee weapon sharpness in the main series. The only games that really subvert this are the PC games, though occasionally there will be the odd main game that only reaches up to White sharpness, the level immediately below Purple. Purple is typically reserved only for the final tier or upgrade of weapons, and will occasionally require an additional armour skill to unlock, though some weapons will never reach Purple no matter what you do.

Some monster subspecies have blue or purple as their defining color, and are much stronger than their regular counterparts in some form. Examples include Purple Gypceros and Purple Ludroth.

A few monsters glow purple when they get enraged or enter a Super Mode, including Amatsumagatsuchi, Gore Magala and Varusaburosu.

The Gore Magala is primarily black and purple in color.

Frenzy-infected monsters and their icons glow purple.

Put on a Bus and Written-In Absence: Lagiacrus and Gobul were noticeably absent from Portable 3rd, even though the same locations are used in this game as their debut in Tri. Their disappearance from this game are attributed to the summer season taking over their habitats, leaving areas previously used for underwater combat dried up.

Rainbow Pimp Gear: Mostly averted; you need to wear the entire set of an armor type to get the full bonuses. Mixing up armor also has the problem of messing with your elemental defenses, which become quite important in later quests. However, some skill combinations can only be obtained by mixing armor sets, and some sets are incomplete (Example: Diablos armor used to be only a helm, chestplate, and armguards), requiring you to find another set to fill the missing slots.

On a more literal note, S-Rank and other higher rank armours have the option to change its colour, including one "Rainbow" option. Relevant, seeing as they are best worn in sets.note In 4U, you can colour all your armours from the beginning, unlocking the Rainbow colour option when you complete the Caravaneer's Challenge.

Randomly Drops: To be more specific, randomly carves from dead monster.

4/4U's Guild Quests. You have a random chance of getting these whenever you go hunt monsters in the Everwood on Expeditions, with the rate increasing every time you successfully hunt a monster, or pick up one of its shiny drops (which enforces Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! even more). These are important because there are some monsters you can only find in Expeditions and Guild Quests, including the Basarios/Ruby Basarios, Yian Kut-Ku/Blue Yian Kut-Ku, Yian Garuga, and Kirin/Oroshi Kirin, and the more difficult the monster, the rarer the drop rate for that monster's Guild Quest. It doesn't stop there, since the drop rate is also affected by what exactly you hunt, with different monsters providing different drop rates for different Guild Quests. All of this adds up to creating a potentially aggravating experience when trying to farm Everwood-only monsters and can never seem to get that one monster whose Guild Quest you need.

Randomly Generated Levels: Everwood. While the areas themselves are static, the game chooses a random permutation of them each time you go through the map.

Random Number God: Experienced hunters can tell you horror stories about their attempts to appease the RNG, which has been outfitted with a "desire sensor" that reduces the drop rate of any monster part you really really need to make your armor. The only way to increase the chances of getting something is to not want it. Mind, you have to actually not want it. The Desire Sensor is immune to reverse psychology. Petting the pig may help you, though. Maybe.

Rare Random Drop: The much coveted Plates/Gems/monster-dependent G-Rank drops that are required for armor and/or weapons. These things have the lowest drop rates for the particular monster in question, and as the Random Number God trope will tell you, many a hunter can go for hunt upon hunt upon hunt and never get that Plate/Gem/monster-dependent G-Rank drop that they really need, all thanks to the much loathed "Desire Sensor".

Raptor Attack: The first aggressive monsters the player always encounters are basically these. The first generation introduces the "Velociprey" line — Velociprey, Genprey and Ioprey, as well as their "alpha" males Velocidrone, Gendrome and Iodrome, respectively, with the second generation adding the Giaprey and Giadrome to the family. The third generation replaces them with the "Jaggi" line — Jaggi and Baggi, with their "alpha males" Great Jaggi and Great Baggi, respectively, with Portable 3rd adding the Furogi/Great Furogi(know as wroggi/great wroggi in the western versions) to the roster.

Also in 4U, everything that the Guildmarm says about the Brachydios during its urgent quest just plays its manliness up a few notches. She might actually be in love with it too...

Real Life Writes the Plot: The May 2013 shutdown of Tri's Western online servers was written into the game's lore as being the result of a particularly vicious Jhen Mohran attack that managed to utterly demolish Loc Lac City.

Red Baron: Many powerful wyverns almost seem as if people are worshiping their awesomeness, as certain titles and motifs tend to appear over Quest Names, Monster Descriptions and Item Descriptions. For example, Khezu is the "Light in the Dark", Blangonga is "The Ruler of the Snow", Yian Garuga is "The Lone Wolf", Rathalos is the "King of the Skies", etc. One would think with all the monsters in existence by now, it'd get difficult to top the titles they already have. Played with when the Moga Village Chief in Tri talks about the Lagiacrus:

The Japanese releases for certain games often include tie-ins with local gaming and manga publications. Some examples are the Jolly Roger set in Unite, Asuna's sword in Tri and the Tessaiga in 4.

Tri's Western release drops the monthly fees for multiplayer and also allows for voice chat online.

Remixed Level: Shows up many times in the series, either within the same title or across different ones. Of note is that all remixed areas tend to feature different subsets of monsters from the regular versions.

Freedom 2/Unite has a large number of remixed zones, some bearing bigger differences than others.

Jungle (Day) takes place during bright and sunny low tide hours, allowing you to cross a sandbar towards a nearby island filled with treasure. Jungle (Night) takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm (thus disabling outdoor bomb use), and the sandbar is submerged by the waves.

Swamp (Day) is cold and rainy, disabling the use of Barrel Bombs as long as you're outdoors. Swamp (Night) has no precipitation, but toxic gases begin rising out of the bog in certain places instead.

Desert (Day) is hot and arid, requiring the use of Cool Drinks to keep your health from draining. Desert (Night) is absolutely freezing, requiring Hot Drinks to keep your Stamina from dropping fast.

Volcano (Day) lets you climb the mountain as far up as the crater area, allowing you to mine for rare minerals along its rim. At night, however, the volcanic activity greatly intensifies, blocking all access to the crater and creating impassable lava flows in certain areas.

The Treasure Hunting quests invoke this, causing all gathering nodes and monsters in a given map to drop treasures and consumables instead of their normal fare. Said quests also seal off many regular routes and shortcuts with destructible boulders, forcing players to think out of the box and look for ways to remove the obstacles or bypass them.

3 has several remixed areas of its own:

Moga Woods (Day) is filled with run-of-the-mill monsters and bosses. Moga Woods (night), however, is filled with stronger High Rank monsters and hordes of Bullfangoes. This is the main reason why the Chief's Son prevents you from going out at night early in the game.

Sandy Plains is yet another desert area that is hot at daytime and cold at nighttime.

Flooded Forest tends to only have cosmetic differences between Day and Night versions, but Portable 3rd's version takes the trope further and dries up almost all of the waterlogged areas, attributing it to the summer season.

4 has a couple of remixed areas, though not as much as the previous games:

The Sunken Hollow is supposed to be the game's resident Volcano area... Except there's no lava. Once you get the lava flowing, the area returns as the Volcanic Hollow, now with fire hazards (obviously) and a whole new mix of monsters.

The Dunes area continues the series' tradition of having Day and Night versions of the desert zone, with daytime being scorching hot and nighttime being freezing cold. Also at night, a shortcut opens up in the oasis between areas 3 and 7, a meteorite mining node appears inside one of the side caverns, and a huge vortex of quicksand inexplicably appears in the middle of the area 7, making movement extremely difficult for anybody who steps onto it. The best part? The Dunes are actually a remixed version of the Old Desert map from the first and second generation.

The Dundorma Battlequarters in is a remix of the Dundorma Town map from the 2nd gen games; the difference is that the main combat zone has been renovated into a fully equipped battle arena with ramparts on all sides and a slew of brand new mechanized weaponry.

The Tower Summit is a revamped version of Area 8 from the old Tower 1 map in Dos and Unite, albeit filled with ledges and a pair of collapsible pillars to accommodate the vertical movement mechanics.

Repeatable Quest: Online play consists almost entirely of repeatable hunts, so the quests are naturally repeatable as well. However, the extended preparation required for each task keeps players involved. Most quests in offline play are repeatable as well, with the exception of certain storyline quests (such as when you encounter Cha-Cha for the first time). Generally speaking, those that aren't have a Suspiciously Similar Substitute.

Replay Mode: Entering new zones, defeating certain monsters for the first time during the village quests and finishing certain Final Bosses will unlock their respective intro cinematics, monster ecologies and staff rolls for viewing in the game's Gallery menu; 4U also adds special Event cinematics to the list. In Freedom 2/Unite, the Gallery was only accessible from the main menu, but in 3U, 4, and 4U, the Felyne butler who lives in the player's house can give you access to the Gallery without needing to exit the game proper.

Rhino Rampage: Although technically rhinoceros are not present in the game, the Rhenoplos monster is clearly designed off of one, even having a similar name. It behaves exactly the way you would expect a video game rhino to behave.

Ridiculously Cute Critter: The fanbase has taken quite a liking to (miniature, or miniaturized) Yian Kut-Ku. Cutesy fanart of miniature kut-kus aren't hard to find on 4chan.

The Felynes are 2-foot tall, anthropomorphic Siamese cats with the cutest meow ever, speak in gratuitous catspeak with words like 'purretty' and 'beclaws,' and do a little dance around you when you hold a torch up! Tri adds a Felyne chef who says things like "meown ami".

Subverted with the Melynxes, the black-furred counterpart to the Felynes. They may look cute, but watch out, as they will attempt to steal your items on sight.

Then there's the Hypnocatrice, which is basically a smaller, cuter version of the Kut-Ku with more birdlike traits and the threat level reduced by a truckload. In a world with many a deadly Breath Weapon, its special attack is... putting its enemies to sleep. You probably are going to feel a bit guilty when whacking on this creature.

In Tri, whenever the Guild Sweetheart tries to find helpful information about a new monster or area, she inevitably comes up with nothing, due to either lack of information or a painfully obvious description.

In 4 Ultimate, there is a running joke about your hunter possessing Big Ol' Eyebrows, courtesy of the Guildmarm botching some advertisement posters she illustrated. Another one is the rumor of some unknown hunter repelling Dah'ren Mohran wearing nothing but undies, after you did so at the start of the game.

Whenever you complete a Quest from the Egg Syndicate, they begin to sing the Syndicate's anthem, but you leave before they get around to it. After finishing "Egg-straction: Final Mission", the Cathar Village Elder sings the whole theme to you.

Tropes S-Z

Sand Is Water: Happens with regularity; see Sand Worm below. On top of that, people take to ships that sail on sand for transportation and for hunting down the Mohren family of monsters.

From Tri onward we get the Jhen Mohran, which is arguably the best example of a Sand Worm in the franchise. It swims through the sand at high speed, leaping to attack. It has even gained a mythical status in the Monster Hunter universe, similar to the Shai-Halud, being seen as an omen of prosperity. 4 introduces a relative of the Jhen Mohran, Dah'ren Mohran. It fights in a nearly identical way to its third generation cousin.

Many smaller monsters such as Rhenoplos and Bullfangos have also been known to move about by burrowing.

The Cephalos and its larger cousin the Cephadrome are piscine wyverns that swim through the sand like fish. From Tri onwards Delex take over the role of "sand fish" from the Cephalos, and in 3 Ultimate we get the giant Nibelsnarf. Then in 4U the Cephalos and Cephadrome come back along with the Delex for a really crowded sandspace.

The giant crabs as well. Daimyo Hermitaur burrows through the sand in the desert, and the Shogun Ceanataur burrows through the mud in the swamp.

Most brute wyverns move about by burrowing - the Barroth, Uragaan, Duramboros, and The Dreaded Deviljho. In 3U, Brachydios was originally the only brute wyvern that didn't burrow, but in 4U, it burrows when leaving an area.

A number of flying wyverns can also burrow, notably the Diablos, Monoblos, Basarios, and Gravios.

The Agnaktor and its smaller counterparts the Uroktor are a notable example in that they burrow not through sand or dirt, but through solid stone by superheating their beaks to instantly melt the stone into magma.

4 introduces Zamtrios, a shark/toad hybrid that can walk on land, making it a literal land shark. 4 Ultimate introduces the desert-based subspecies Tigerstripe Zamtrios.

Save Scumming: Played straight because it's very helpful in manipulating the RNG into giving you that one last monster piece with a 2% drop/carve rate. Somewhat subverted in that you can only instant-save/ load between quests, so you only save yourself the money and resources, not time.

Scare Chord: Plays when you encounter a large monster. In 4, a distinct one plays when you're spotted by a Frenzied monster. 4 Ultimate adds another for Apex monsters.

Schizo Tech: The original game had an apparent Bronze Age or Iron Age with primitive firearms. The rest of the tech has advanced as the series has continued... but the firearms have kept step, and are always better than what should actually exist at that point in history. Then you get airships in Frontier and Sandships in Tri, plus complex mechanical weapons like the Switch Axe.

Scratch Damage: Played straight on both the monsters and on the player: any weapon can do damage no matter how insignificant, and most monsters can inflict this upon players who get in the way when the monster is repositioning itself - no, not actively charging, as in, stepping sideways to rotate themselves. Becomes irritating in the latter case as it often leaves you vulnerable from the resulting flinch animation.

Generally speaking, if you have any armour at all, most small monsters will only be capable of doing this to you. Instead, the threat comes from knockback and potentially status problems.

Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: The player character at the end of the single-player campaign in Tri. With the revelation of the Ceadeus, the Guild has ordered the evacuation of Moga, and has expressly forbidden your Hunter from going after the monster, as it is one that they generally send armies of Hunters after. The Hunter's license is at risk if she/he doesn't follow the order. She/he does it anyway.

Even the most persistent Goddamned Bats will flee if two large monsters appear in the same area.

Every monster except for Remobras, Neopterons, and Melynxes will flee the entire map if an Elder Dragon is present.

Monsters encountered during 4U's Expeditions can permanently flee the area after enough time passes, denying you many rewards. When the game warns you that a monster is trying to escape, the next time the monster leaves the area, it leaves the map entirely. This can be a pain in the neck when you need drops from monsters that only come from Expeditions (Savage Deviljho on G-Rank is a notorious one), but this is the trade-off for having infinite carts.

Serial Escalation: The weapon sizes by themselves could fit this trope, but weapon power is a whole different story. The Ukanlos Trampler has a raw damage rating of 1820, the highest of any weapon (at least in Freedom Unite), and that's before applying any attack bonuses. To put this in perspective, the only hammer to come close is the Enormous Ham G at 1612, but even then it's missing the Ice Element damage and the Defense bonus (though it does have a better affinity).

Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: It's rare, but it's possible for two large monsters to fight each other if one manages to hit the other and all the players vacate their immediate area of awareness. The perpetrator is usually Deviljho.

Set Bonus: The games encourage you to create a full armor set from materials gleaned from a given monster to earn special bonuses otherwise unavailable when wearing equipment of different sources.

Gold Rathian can do this multiple times in quick succession (with painful accuracy if the target is close enough), as well as backflip right after tripping. To be precise, tripping a monster usually means all hunters go full attack with free hits, rendering themselves vulnerable in the process, and this is where Gold Rathians' become annoying if unexpected.

Shifting Sand Land: The Desert in Monster Hunter 1 (old) and 2 (new), the Sandy Plains and the Sandsea in 3, and the Dunes in 4. During night, those same areas will be instead very cold, and decrease the player's stamina unless a Hot Drink is consumed. And various large monsters happen to love lurking in them including the Daimyo Hermitaur, Cephadrome, Nibelsnarf, Sand Barioth and Diablos.

In 2008-2009, a Chinese developer came up with the online PC game "Hunter Blade" which all but completely ripped off many assets from Freedom Unite and possibly Frontier. Videos of the game on YouTube tend to be highly derided as a result, except by those who are bitter about Capcom's No Export for You policies on certain titles.

The Monoblos and Diablos armor make good use of the monster's horns. The Gunner version of their sets are slightly more subdued.

The Daimyo Hermitaur armor resembles an American Football jersey, complete with rounded shoulder pads.

The Hornetaur blademaster set has enormous shoulder pads for both male and female versions. Because the accompanying leg armor is tight fitting, it has the side effect of making player characters look uncomfortably top-heavy.

The male Gravios armor has enormous pauldrons that stretch beyond the shoulders, looking like distorted side mirrors in the process. They make the player character look twice as wide as a consequence, and are thus highly disliked by players gearing for fashion.

The High Rank Nerscylla blademaster armor has a gigantic pair of pauldrons with long, drooping spikes that extend past the waist. The G-Rank version has more subdued shoulders, but replaces the spikes with a ribbon cape.

Shows Damage: Averted for the hunters and their companions, but played straight for the monsters to the point of being a gameplay mechanic. Taking enough damage in certain parts of their body can cause them to break or otherwise suffer visible injury, usually giving the hunter an advantage. Cutting off a monster's tail, for instance, makes evading certain attacks easier, while damaging horns, fangs, claws, and other body parts can decrease the monster's damage or agility.

The Switch Axe named "Sinister Saints"; the axe part looks like death, and the blade of the weapon is death's scythe. making it one in name as well.

The Gore Magala Switch Axe in 4 also takes on the form of a scythe in axe mode.

Situational Damage Attack: The Great Sword has its own damage system based on which part of the blade is in contact. The bottom and tip of the blade are weakest, while the center has the highest damage output.

Though often just an easter egg/visual gimmick, it's played straight with a lot of Long Swords, Hammers, and Great Swords once their Charged Attack is used.

The ability Latent Power, which gives a massive Affinity boost and reduction to Stamina use for 90 seconds when certain conditionsnote Stay in combat with a Large Monster for five minutes, or take over 180 HP in damage are met.

Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Many of the smaller sword-type weapons. Example: the Order Rapier - a Dual Sword weapon whose weapon class only has about two stabbing attacks.

Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: The series pulls no punches about how Badass and threatening the various monsters are, but the NPCs regularly lighten up the mood with jokes pertaining to the latest deadly monsters, and there are a number of cute and silly creatures such as the Felynes, Poogies, and Shakalakas.

Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Snowy Mountains in Monster Hunter 2, the Tundra in 3, and the Frozen Seaway and Polar Field in 4 Ultimate. In this case, there are no slippy grounds or dense snowy terrains, but rather there's the very cold temperature which will gradually deplete the dash meter of the player. Drinking a hot beverage will prevent this.

Done by some wyverns. Sometimes, they will just decide to screw using their breath attacks or charges and simply walk towards you slowly, then use a bite or hip check. Sometimes it's actually not dangerous at all and a good chance to get in a few hits, but in a game where you're used to having an interval between enemy attacks of maybe 2 seconds, such a long silence can be oddly terrifying as the monster approaches you.

Zinogre is fond of this, tends to do it completely unpredictably and right in the middle of battle before suddenly launching a lightning-fast attack. He can also summon an actual lightning storm while doing so. The Stygian Zinogre even features this as an upgrade to its signature charging phase, and it comes with dark lightning to protect it from unwary Hunters, to boot.

"Smoke bombs" can be used to get close to a monster unnoticed, or make a monster lose you. If you drop a Smoke Bomb at the start of the Alatreon fight in Tri, you can buff up in peace for the time the bomb lasts. It will notice you very quickly otherwise.

The Farcaster item releases a burst of green smoke and teleports the user back to the base camp, simulating the effect of a smoke-covered escape.

Chameleos gains this as a Rage Mode mechanic in 4U, breathing a heavy cloud of mist that obscures the entire area it's in and enables it to use its stealth camouflage. The mist attack also doubles as a poisonous Breath Weapon, and as if those weren't enough, it also dampens its Leitmotif. Outside of rage, Cham also prefers spitting gobs of venom that vaporize into toxic clouds, manipulating them by flapping its wings and tail to either coalesce the vapor around itself or spread it out.

Socialization Bonus: A major part of the fun of the series is getting some friends together to clear out online quests that are much easier done with fellow hunters than by oneself. However, online servers tend to expire when new games get released, and portable games up until Monster Hunter 4 don't have online multiplayer. In the case of the former, playing an outdated game means not being able to do any online quests, and in the case of the latter, if you don't live someplace where there are a lot of players, you'll be able to do the multiplayer-capable quests but monsters can easily turn into Goddamned Bosses, or Those Bosses if they hit hard or you can't damage them enough before time runs out.

Socketed Equipment: Weapons and Armor can have from zero to three "slots" in which to put gems. Said gems then count towards skill points needed to activate certain skills.

Soft Water: Played very weirdly in Tri. As always, your character can fall from any height onto anything without damage — at least one area has two exits that are probably 100 foot drops — minimum — one into water and one onto solid ground, and they're both perfectly safe.. However, whenever you fall into water while carrying a Wyvern Egg, no matter how far you fall, you get the "sinks to the bottom" animation for dropping an egg by entering water, not the "break on impact" animation for falling from a height.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: A variant where you can do this. When you recruit a Palico, its weapon is added to a common inventory. If you whish, you can just recruit a Palico because you want its weapon and dismiss it next chance you get. The Meownster Hunters' contribution to this pool will be the first (non-DLC) alternate sets Palico armor you'll get your hands on. Even if you keep the Meownster Hunters, they're the best you can get early on as a your mini-game team, so their gear is probably going to the Palicoes you actually plan to take on quests.

Some Dexterity Required: The games are known for their hand-unfriendly controls, particularly the PSP ones. Players of the PSP games can often be seen "claw-gripping" their systems—using their thumb on the analog nub to move and index finger on the D-pad to swing the camera. Although it's gotten better with the 3DS games, due to the Circle Pad Pro (original 3DS models), the C-Stick Nub (New 3DS models), or the touchscreen D-pad (all 3DS models).

Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: Applied to all items in the games, not just weapons. When looking at any item, you see its Rarity, a number indicating how early or late in the game you're supposed to be able to get it. As of Unite, the Rarity levels go up to 10 (and in Frontier, 12). Everything up to Rarity 5 is the items obtainable with materials from low-rank quests, Rarity 6-8 is items from high-rank quests, and Rarity 9-10 is items from G-rank quests.

However, effectiveness is subverted occasionally with some weapons. For example, Siegmund in Freedom 2 is widely considered to be among the best Great Swords despite being Rank 7.

Standard Status Effects: Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Mud/Snow and Fatigue. Players can inflict and be inflicted with them. Later games also add element-based status effects in the form of Fireblight (Damage Over Time from burning), Waterblight (reduced Stamina regeneration), Iceblight (increased Stamina consumption), Thunderblight (increased susceptibility to getting dizzied) and Dragonblight (temporarily removes weapon element/status abilities and Affinity).

Spit Take: Happens in the Seregios ecology when a hunter drinking a cool drink spots a whole swarm of Seregios in the sky.

Sticks to the Back: Played straight. Every single weapon class in the game does this - no, not even the Long Swords that come with sheathes are exceptions. The Bowguns that could have been given shoulder slings? Don't have them.

Stripperiffic: Female armor sets have a 20-40% chance of being this, but there are also a lot of Battle Ballgowns and everything in between to boot. Some sets, like the Bone armor, are skimpy even on male hunters.

The Long Sword has a Spirit Gauge that fills up with each regular slash. While you could normally spend the collected energy on powerful Spirit Combos as soon as it's available, maxing out the meter grants you a temporary attack boost. Starting with Tri, you could also activate a separate super mode by performing a Finishing Move during your Spirit Combo, which grants an additional temporary attack boost, and which can be powered up three times.

The Dual Blades are able to enter Demon Mode by tapping R, which constantly drains Stamina, but grants a variety of buffs such as increased damage and attack speed, and access to the powerful Demon Dance maneuver. If you attack consistently while in Demon Mode, you can then enter Archdemon Mode, which consumes no Stamina and provides a host of new attacks and an even stronger Demon Dance, alongside a special dodge move that can be chained straight into attacks.

If you know it exists, the Charge Blade's Element Up Mode in 4U. By having at least one charged Phial, then using Axe Mode's Amped Element Discharge and tapping R during the startup, you will use all of your Phials to activate a buff that grants +20% Axe Mode damage, and a variety of bonuses in Sword and Shield Mode, such as a powerful, explosive auto-shield, and Element Discharge-like bonuses to the Phial Charge follow-up and the "shield thrust" (X, X+A). You also gain access to the Charge Blade's ultimate move, the Super Amped Element Discharge.

The Insect Glaive has one for getting the red, white, and orange extracts on you all at once before they disappear, granting a further helping of attack and defense boosts as well as hearing protection.

Apex mode is this for monsters who manage to overcome the Frenzy. Apex monsters have massively improved offensive and defensive capabilities, making them very difficult to defeat, unless the hunter has Wystones with which to nullify it.

Super-Persistent Predator: Subverted- bosses tend to flee when wounded, but minor predators like Velociprey will continuously do Scratch Damage at you even if they should be fleeing from the barn-sized monstrosity that keeps crushing them by accident.

Technically, with the practice of Persistence Hunting, the Hunters themselves.

Super Title 64 Advance: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, otherwise known as 3U / MH 3U, has one of its releases on the Wii U.

The Switch Axe and Charge Blade. The Switch Axe is an axe that folds into a sword whereas the Charge Blade is a sword and a shield which combines into an axenote In the Switch Axe's case, the Axe is the standard form where energy builds up while in the Charge Blade's case, the Axe is the alternate form where stored energy gets used.

The Gunlance, a combination Lance and breech-loaded cannon. It's also one of the only two Blademaster weapons that accepts certain Gunner skills, the other being the Charge Bladenote Artillery strengthens its shelling and Wyvern Fire power, while Load Up increases the amount of shells in its magazine.

The Syndicate: In 4, there's an "Egg Syndicate" whose main schtick is collecting fresh monster eggs for use in cuisine, and they often employ you to go out into the dangerous wild to collect Gargwa, Herbivore, and Wyvern Eggs for this purpose. They even threaten you with some Brooklyn Rage if you think about snitching on them. Their members are hidden among the many NPCs you meet, which include the Val Habar Armory merchant, the Cheerful Troverian, the Cheeko Sands Armory Felyne, and their Don, the Cathar Village Elder. In 4U, completing the two additional Egg Syndicate quests given by the female Relay Hunter in the Dundorma Assembly and slaying the Crimson Fatalis reveals that their true leader is implied to be none other than His Immenseness, the Wyvernian ruler of Dundorma City.

Tactical Suicide Boss: The Agnaktor is covered in an armor of rapidly cooling lava. After enough time, it hardens enough that nothing short of explosions can harm him. However, when he burrows underground, or uses his heat beam, or wades into lava, it softens enough for him to be attacked again. He'd be close to invincible if he stuck to just his hip attacks and charges, rather than burrowing and using heat beams.

The Glacial Agnaktor has the opposite problem, in that its icy armor melts the longer it's above ground and and freezes back up once it burrows.

Take That: The ad campaign for Monster Hunter Tri, pointing out the difference between "sissy" real life hunters and fishermen as opposed to big, awesome monster hunters. The ad campaign often made use of footage from television show Deadliest Catch. Deadliest Catch appears again as the name of a 3 star quest in Tri, pitting you against giant man-eating catfish and alligator monsters.

Take Your Time: The player can just grind and fight other monsters as much as they want before tackling any "Urgent Quests". Egregious in many main storyline Urgent Quests, particularly Final Boss battles, where the monster attack is said to be imminent—and is often played up to cause the destruction of a village, loss of lives or much worse, if the monster is not stopped.

Tampering with Food and Drink: Raw meat can be tampered to give it different effects such as poison, sleep, stun, etc. which will be applied to a monster stupid enough to eat such "Trap meat".

The training missions and many of the downloadable quests give you predetermined sets of equipment, some of which are far beyond what you're capable of making around the time you first unlock these missions.

The downloadable demo for 3 Ultimate gives you the highest tier equipment in the game, and lets you hunt a monster at the lowest rank.

Initially played straight, then subverted with the Special Demo for 4U. The gear you get is approximately middle High Rank equipment, alongside especially rare items you won't get until late postgame in the full version, such as Disposable Earplugs and Dust of Life. Against the Great Jaggi and Tetsucabra, it's a fairly simplistic task to hunt them due to your especially powerful equipment. However, the demo's Gore Magala is leagues above what your gear is capable of, as it can easily chop off half your health in one blow.

Played with when you fight the Apex Seregios in 4U. What you're fighting isn't supposed to be encountered until G Rank, as this monster type doesn't show up until then. However, you also get access to the Proto Wystone: Drive during the fight, allowing you to cut through its otherwise impenetrable hide. You don't get access to Drive Wystones until much farther into the postgame.

Technical Pacifist: You can spare a large monster's life by capturing it instead of killing it. In "hunt" quests, this counts as a successful hunt; you don't actually have to kill the target unless the quest objective explicitly uses the term "slay".

That Came Out Wrong: Several characters will utter embarassing Non Sequiturs from time to time, but the Gathering Hall Shopmistress in 4U is this trope incarnate due to her nervousness, up to and including mistakenly saying "Boyguns" instead of Bowguns.

Shopmistress: "WHAT!? No, I meant "Bowguns" not "Boyguns"! We don't have any boys that you can put in your guns!"

In missions where you're fighting a Colossal-class monster around the Fortress, the BGM will switch from that monster's rather threatening theme song to a more heroic one once it reaches the final area of the map, since that's where the outcome of the battle is decided. The climactic fight against Lao Shan Lung at the Fortress gates uses the games' signature main theme, "Proof of a Hero", for full effect.

Most Dragonators, such as the one at the Castle Schrade (a drill, a very large, spiky drill), the one at the Fort (consists of four very large, not-so-spiky drills), and the one during any fight that occurs on a ship, such as the Jhen Mohran and Dah'ren Moran fights, the "surprise" boss fight against Gore Magala on the Arluq, and an Event Quest fight against a Seregios, also on the Arluq.

The Skyscraper, a powerful weapon that is hard to obtain and is made from a chunk of worn-out ancient metal, is the largest lance in Tri and perhaps the entire series. When the player uses the lance's charge move, the lance spins, resembling something like a portable Dragonator. And according to the description, it's capable of piercing the heavens.

Also the Grief Lance/Fiendish Tower.

The Spiral Heat lance also starts spinning while charging.

The Undertaker series of lances seems to be a broken drill. It doesn't spin, but it's still a dragon-element drill. The Matenro series is the the fully repaired version of the lance, but exchanges dragon element with a huge boost in raw power.

4 introduced Zamtrios, which is basically is a frog with the head, dorsal fin, and tail of a shark.

Timed Mission: All quests have a time limit, typically 50 minutes, although some quests, particularly quests where repelling (i.e. holding out long enough against) a monster is a victory condition, have shorter time limits, typically 30 or 35 minutes. 50 minutes is more than enough for most quests, although some online/multiplayer quests, particularly ones against Elder Dragons, can take almost the entire 50 minutes if you try to tackle them alone.

Time-Limit Boss: The above trope when applied to large monster hunting and slaying quests. In 4 and 4U, this applies to large monsters in Expeditions in a different way: If you take too long to kill a monster it will leave for good.

Title Drop: The most difficult G-Rank quests in certain games are simply called "Monster Hunter". Fittingly, they involve fighting multiple flagship monsters one after the other.

Toilet Humor: Most of the dialogue from Stink Mask wearers in 3 Ultimate runs on this.

The -dromes from recent MHF updates. While still King Mooks, they get significant attack pattern changes, making them more threatening than just being health-buffed versions of their subordinates.

In 4U, there is a cowardly felyne questgiver named "Whitescruff" who can be found on Cheeko Sands. He is initially scared to death of the monsters that inhabit the Primal Forest near their home, and asks you to show him how to be brave by fighting them off. Ultimately, he asks you to take down the Akantor that was responsible for both marooning the Felyne Elder on Cheeko Sands and the disappearance of her husband. Succeeding in this quest finally helps him get over his fears, and allows you to hire him as a Palico.

The Argosy Captain and Neko (Means "Cat") parodies this habit of anime fansubbers in all their dialog and in the latter's case, his name.

Neko (Means "Cat"): The Tanzia is three ports wrapped up in hitotsu! Hitotsu means one.

In 4/4U, not only do the Argosy Captain and Neko (Means "Cat") return for a guest appearance, the descriptions for the new armor based off of them are rife with this.

Total Party Kill: Due to the "three defeats across the whole party and they're out" mechanic, a team of three or four players can easily go from zero to three in seconds if they're unfortunate to all be low on health and be struck by the same monster doing the same attacks.

Tranquillizer Dart: Used frequently, with Tranq Bombs, Tranq S bowgun ammo, and even Tranq Throwing Knives, required for monster capture quests. It's not Instant Sedation though, the monster has to be near-dead and in a trap for it to work.

There's also Sleep element weapons, which can make a monster randomly doze off in the middle of a fight.

The Ace Commander in 4U gets very nervous and lost in thought when Rathians are involved. This is because he and his mentor, the Master of Defense, were on a Rathian hunt when he caused the incident that led to his mentor's Career-Ending Injury.

Whitescruff, the scaredy Felyne on Cheeko Sands, keeps fretting over the dangerous monsters surrounding their home. It's because he was one of the survivors of a rogue Akantor attack during an ocean voyage, which resulted in his original Hunter master disappearing in combat against the creature and his entire family getting shipwrecked on Cheeko Sands.

Trauma Inn: Most Base Camps have a bed that can be slept in to restore health and cure negative status problems. The sleeping hunter's AI partner(s) are also healed instantly.

Felvine Bombs, essentially catnip potpourri bombs that can either leave annoying Felynes and Melynxes drunk off their asses and have them drop Shinies, or can tag a monster and have said Felynes and Melynxes ignore you to focus on them. It also improves the accuracy of Palico attacks on a tagged monster. Just don't get caught in the blast radius or you'll be tagged as well. Also, make sure any Palicoes are away from one or they'll be too drunk to be of any help in a hunt for a while.

Turns Red: Nearly every monster gets angry when you hurt it enough, and gains power, speed, and new moves while enraged. Usually they'll calm down after a while, but the less health a monster has, the less damage it takes to make them angry again. On the plus side, you can get a rough idea of how close a monster is to dying based on how quickly they get mad. Can also happen visually with certain monsters, such as the Gigginox, Deviljho, Rajang and Tigrex, who will change their colors to depict whether they are enraged, or even exhausted. Special mention goes to the Baleful Gigginox, who literally turns red as a shout-out to the Red Khezu.

Twenty Bear Asses: Averted in the actual quest structure for the most part. Most of the quests only involve slaying a boss or two, though a few of the lower rank missions do involve killing a larger number of smaller monsters. Tri's subquests sometimes play this straight, however, adding an optional requirement to kill a certain number of smaller monsters during a quest for extra rewards, and certain early quests in many games play it completely straight by making you scrounge around for things like Goldenfish, Popo Tongues and Kelbi Horns. The Guildmarm from 4 Ultimate even lampshades this:

Guildmarm: Of course, there has to be one "fetch-the-Unique-Mushrooms" quest. We don't mess with tradition here at the Guild.

Underground Monkey: There are several monster families that share movesets, tactics and certain features, plus subspecies and such. This is usually a good thing however, given that having to learn a brand new moveset for every new wyvern would make the game even more absurdly difficult, and the wyverns usually have enough distinctions between the subspecies, such as new moves, weaknesses, varied features etc.

Unfriendly Fire: Aside from player-to-player damage being heavily decreased, this is in full effect; players can send flying or stunlock their allies if they don't pay attention to where they're swinging/shooting. See Friendly Fireproof above for examples.

Unidentified Items: Throughout the series, Rust Shards and Ancient Shards can be mined from various maps, and are identified once the current mission is completed. They are either a random weapon of that hunter rank—sometimes a Rusted Weapon or Worn Weapon which generally upgrade into powerful weapons.

4 Ultimate's Rusted Armor, found in the Everwood on Expeditions and Guild Quests. You can't tell exactly what kind of armor it is (only its type) until you finish the Expedition or Guild Quest, where what you found can be appraised. However, even after appraisal, the gear you found can't be worn until you get it polished in town.

Uniqueness Decay: In 4/4U, the Article the Caravaneer keeps under his hat is a Shagaru Magala Pure Scale. Once you have the possibility of fighting Shagaru Magala, you can get more Pure Scales.

Unstoppable Rage: Large monsters can become enraged after taking enough damage. Generally speaking, this results in faster speeds, higher damage, and even entirely new attacks that they are not usually capable of pulling off. On the plus side, they usually become exhausted shortly after their rage subsides.

As of Monster Hunter 4, the Infected monsters can enter an essentially permanent Rage Mode once the infection inevitably assumes total control of its host, gaining speed, strength, and imbuing some attacks with the virus itself, potentially inflicting it upon the hunter.

Unwinnable by Design: Running out of tranquilizers on a capture quest won't immediately result in quest failure, but it may as well do.

In general, if the Flavor Text for an item ends in "...but of no use to a Hunter" or something along the lines of "sell it for cash", you can sell it for cash without screwing over a potential combination or equipment purchase.

Eggs that are given as quest rewards, especially Silver and Gold Eggs, often sell for four- or five-digits zenny. However, silver and gold ones are also necessary to craft Fate jewels.

Hitting your fellow Hunters inflicts no damage, but causes Knockback. However, this is generally a bad idea while hunting, so this is best saved for the post-victory standby period. Averted to an extent as of 4U, where certain attacks from some heavy weapons such as the Hammer and Charge Blade's Axe Mode can actually launch other Hunters on strike, allowing them to get an aerial attack and potentially mount a monster.

Hitting Felynes and Melynxes with Felvine Bombs to render them drunk. You can also walk right up to them and kick them over, including the peaceful ones in the Felyne areas and even your own loyal Palicoes (and, if you're feeling particularly spiteful, your friends'). If you have the Felyne Kickboxer skill, they'll go soaring through the air when you punt them.

Video Game Lives: Three KOs and you're out. In a multiplayer hunt, this is three KOstotal, not per player. This means your party can fail a quest even if you have party members who don't faint at all, and that a party of three or four can fail a quest in record time thanks to a Total Party Kill.

Video Game Stealing: The Gypceros and Chameleos can steal your items with some of their attacks. Unlike the Melynxes, your items are Lost Forever once these monsters steal them.

Villain Decay: In 4/4U, that Plesioth whose hipcheck was probably the bane of your existence in the last two generations can now be killed by a group of Felynes and a fishing net.

Violation of Common Sense: During Gore Magala's ambush on the Arluq after leaving Harth in 4 Ultimate, if you are ever in need of healing, you can jump right off your vessel. This will take you to a start point with stock supplies and a bed to rest in, and a convenient set of stairs to get you right back in the action.

Virtual Paper Doll: With the wide variety of armour you can make, you can mix sets together for skills and looks.

The Virus: 4 and 4 Ultimate's Frenzy Virus, a mysterious disease that is spread by Gore Magala and its adult form, Shagaru Magala, contaminating monster and human alike. Its effect on living beings varies depending on what is being affected.

Large Monsters that contract the Frenzy Virus will become Frenzied, becoming abnormally aggressive toward not only Hunters, but also other monsters, as if constantly enraged. Frenzied Monsters also get upgrades to their standard attacks that imbue them with the Frenzy Virus, allowing it spread to Hunters. Under normal circumstances, Frenzied Monsters tend to die soon after, preventing the virus from spreading. However, if a monster overcomes the Frenzy, it becomes an Apex monster, who are extremely deadly and resistant to many forms of conventional combat, as well as being able to spread the Frenzy Virus themselves.

Small Monsters die instantly from any attacks that cause the Frenzy.

Hunters that contract the Frenzy Virus will slowly become infected by it, denoted by a purple bar under the player's nametag. If it is unable to be dispelled, the Hunter will become infected, preventing them from recovering half of the damage dealt to them, as well as taking extra damage from Frenzy-type attacks and causing the Frenzy pools Gore Magala and Shagaru Magala create to rapidly drain the Hunter's health. However, it can be fought off with constant attacks, which causes the Hunter to dispel the Frenzy, becoming temporarily immune, as well as receiving a status and Affinity buff.

Yian Kut-ku is the wake-up call from MH 1-2, a hunter's first real challenge after the gathering, herd thinning and raptor hunting quests.

Tri has Barroth, the first urgent boss (large monster) of the online mode. Not only are his movements completely different from anything you know from other MH games, he is also heavily armored, moves around a lot and has a nasty and hard to dodge status attack that renders you unable to act for a short amount of time. The fact it's the first monster whose roar stuns you doesn't help. There's a reason why players above hunter rank 9 tend to be a lot more skilled than below.

In Tri and 3 Ultimate, take your time to train up underwater combat skill against Royal Ludroth or Gobul. You will need them against Lagiacrus and others.

Later, the Purple Ludroth in 3 Ultimate serves as a message to players that high rank is high rank for a reason.

Similarly in 4 and 4 Ultimate, the Purple Gypceros in early high rank is much faster and far more unpredictable than your run-of-the-mill monster.

Walking the Earth: Unlike previous games, the player's "home village" in 4 is actually a traveling caravan led by a veteran caravaneer, though you still make stops on different villages.

Wizard Needs Food Badly: Both hunters and large monsters lose stamina the longer they go without eating. For the hunter, this decreases the amount of time they can run, dodge, or block attacks. For monsters, this can result in needing to stop and catch their breath, stopping certain attacks from working, and an overall decrease in attack power and mobility.

Gravios' heat beams can and often become One Hit Kills at zero or worse fire resistance. Their rock-like magma resistant shell will usually take the sharpest weapons to even hit properly. Cue Akantor, unfazed by a several seconds of concentrated fire, only to bite down at Gravios' neck in a Curbstomp Battle.

Agnaktor has the same moveset and roughly the same power as Lagiacrus, the flagship monster of Monster Hunter Tri. In Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, it's seen fighting a Brachydios; it uses its most powerful attack, a fire laser, on Brachydios. This does absolutely no damage to Brachydios whatsoever (and Brachydios goes on to kill Agnaktor in less than a minute.)

Occurs in-universe in 4/4U. The Ace Hunters are considered some of the best Hunters you can get. Halfway through the story, they set out to the Everwood to kill Gore Magala. One Quest later, it turns out Gore Magala completely wiped the floor with them, and you have to go rescue the crew that got left behind when they fled.

World of Badass: This game has two parties. The giant, ancient, powerful dinosaurs and dragons that walk the land and destroy whatever comes in their way, and their hunters, who actually manage to beat these monstrous creatures with wit, skill and sheer determination. It's further emphasized with the use of Red Baron for the wyverns and Description Porn for the items, to make sure you have an idea just what kind of beasts you are dealing with.

Wutai: Yukumo, the player's base of operations in Portable 3rd, has a Far Eastern (particularly Japanese) look, down to a guild base which also doubles as a hot springs resort.

Y Not?: G Rank armors are marked with X for the main species of the monster and Z for the subspecies. For example, G Rank Lagiacrus armor is "Lagiacrus X" and G Rank Ivory Lagiacrus armor is "Lagiacrus Z". And then Abyssal Lagiacrus (which is a G Rank monster to begin with) gets a different name altogether.

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